Schedule of Condition
Summary
Entering into a lease can be one of the highest risk and potentially costly processes a business undertakes. Signing a lease on a property and becoming a Tenant not only encumbers a business with the obligation of paying the rent, but also often with several other costs – such as ongoing repairs and maintenance and particularly dilapidations liabilities at the end of the lease term. Many Tenants are often unaware of the potential associated costs of such dilapidations claims.
One way of protecting your position at the outset and therefore reducing your dilapidations liability is to have a Schedule of Condition conducted on the property you are looking to lease.
What is a Schedule of Condition?
A Schedule of Condition is a professionally prepared document that includes both detailed written descriptions and extensive photographs to give a clear record of the condition of a building when a Tenant takes possession.
Prepared by our Chartered Building Surveyor after a thorough inspection of the property, a Schedule of Condition identifies any pre-existing disrepair present in the property, providing a Tenant with evidence that the damage already existed before they took occupancy.
The purpose is to ensure that the Tenant is not required to put the building back into any better condition than that in which they found it. This will then help to counteract elements of repair work and dilapidations that the Tenant would otherwise become responsible for when a Schedule of Dilapidations is prepared by a Landlord at a later date.
A Schedule of Condition can also include floor plan layouts to show the existing arrangement at the time of occupancy, so that incoming tenants cannot later be accused of making, and therefore incurring the liability for removing, alterations that already exist.
After a Schedule of Condition has been prepared, this should be appended to, and referred to, in the Lease, to give the Tenant protection.