You’ve reached the end of your office lease, and a Schedule of Dilapidations has landed on your desk with a number attached. It’s bigger than you expected — possibly much bigger — and your landlord’s agent wants a response. Before you panic, write a cheque, or assume the figure is final, there’s one thing every London tenant should know: a dilapidations claim is an opening position, not a settled bill. And opening positions are very often higher than what you actually owe.
Here’s how to tell whether your claim is inflated, and what to do about it before money changes hands.
Why dilapidations claims so often come in high
A Schedule of Dilapidations is prepared by your landlord’s surveyor, on your landlord’s behalf. It reflects their view of what needs putting right — and it’s natural for that view to be drawn generously. A few things commonly push the number up beyond what a tenant is genuinely liable for:
It’s a negotiating figure. Many schedules are deliberately pitched high on the expectation that the tenant will challenge them and a settlement will be reached somewhere in the middle. If you simply pay the headline figure, you may be paying the asking price on something that was always meant to be negotiated.
Over-specification. Schedules sometimes call for full replacement where a repair would meet the lease obligation, or specify higher-grade materials and finishes than the lease actually requires. You’re obliged to comply with your lease — not to upgrade the landlord’s asset.
Betterment. If the works would leave the property in a better condition than it was when your lease began, that’s betterment, and you shouldn’t be paying for the improvement. Worn carpet tiles replaced like-for-like is reinstatement; a brand-new higher-spec floor across the whole floorplate may be something else.
Supersession. This is the big one tenants miss. If your landlord is going to refurbish, redevelop, or strip the space anyway, some or all of the claimed works may be “superseded” — they’d be undone regardless, so the loss to the landlord is reduced or eliminated. Under Section 18(1) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927, the landlord’s damages are also capped at the actual loss in value to their interest — which can be far less than the cost of the works on paper.
Items that aren’t your responsibility. Fair wear and tear, pre-existing defects recorded in a Schedule of Condition, base-build elements, and works outside your demise can all find their way into a schedule and inflate the total.
None of this means your landlord’s surveyor is acting in bad faith — it means the schedule is one side’s case, and you’re entitled to test it.
Six signs your dilapidations claim may be too high
Use this as a quick gut-check before you respond:
- The figure arrived with little or no breakdown — a lump sum, or vague line items you can’t tie back to specific lease clauses.
- It calls for replacement rather than repair on items that could reasonably be made good.
- You know the landlord is refurbishing or re-letting in a different configuration — a strong supersession signal.
- It ignores your Schedule of Condition (the photographic record of the space at the start of your lease, if one was agreed).
- It includes upgrades or higher specifications than your fit-out or the lease ever required.
- The per-square-foot cost looks steep. Most London end-of-lease strip-out and reinstatement lands somewhere around £15–£35 per sq ft depending on scope and Cat A requirements — figures well above that for a straightforward floor are worth questioning.
If even one or two of these ring true, the claim is worth checking properly before you settle.
How to check before you pay
1. Don’t respond off the cuff. A quick “that seems high” email can weaken your position. Acknowledge receipt, note that you’ll review it, and buy yourself time to get the right advice.
2. Re-read your lease and any Schedule of Condition. Your liability is defined by the repair, reinstatement and yield-up clauses in your lease — not by the schedule. The Schedule of Condition, if you have one, is your single best defence against being charged for damage that pre-dated your tenancy.
3. Get an independent, itemised counter-cost. This is the most powerful step. A specialist dilapidations contractor will price the works line by line, against current London market rates, and flag anything that’s over-specified, duplicated, superseded, or outside your responsibility. That gives you a hard, evidence-based number to negotiate with — rather than the landlord’s number being the only figure on the table.
4. Weigh doing the works against settling. In many cases, instructing a contractor to carry out the genuinely required works yourself is cheaper than paying the landlord’s cash settlement — particularly where the landlord is re-letting on broadly the same basis. Where supersession or redevelopment is in play, a financial settlement may favour you instead. You need both numbers to make the call.
5. Bring in a building surveyor for large or contentious claims. For high-value or disputed schedules — especially where Section 18 or supersession arguments apply — an independent tenant-side surveyor is well worth the fee. The process is governed by the Pre-Action Protocol for dilapidations claims, and a surveyor protects your position formally. We work alongside surveyors regularly and can recommend one if you don’t have your own.
How a specialist contractor helps you push back
This is exactly where bringing in a specialist early pays for itself. At London Dilaps Ltd, we price dilapidations schedules every week, so we know what these works genuinely cost in London and where claims tend to be padded. When you send us your schedule, we review each item against your lease, benchmark it against real market rates, and give you a clear, itemised counter-cost you can take straight into negotiations — alongside your surveyor if you’ve appointed one.
And if doing the works is the better route, we deliver them end to end: strip-out, make-good, Cat A reinstatement and final handover, on a fixed price, with a single point of contact. That means no surprise costs, a clean dispute-free handback, and — very often — a final bill well below the landlord’s opening figure.
Don’t pay the asking price by default
A dilapidations claim is the start of a conversation, not the end of one. Before you accept a number that feels too high, check it properly — read your lease, lean on your Schedule of Condition, and get an independent costing of what the works actually involve. The difference between the landlord’s figure and your genuine liability can run to thousands of pounds.
If you’ve been served a Schedule of Dilapidations and want to know whether the figure stacks up, get a free, no-obligation assessment. We’ll review your obligations, price the works honestly, and tell you exactly where you stand — before you respond to your landlord.