Schedules of Condition

Obtaining a schedule of condition may not seem a priority at the commencement of a lease, yet when the information is required after three, five or ten years when the lease ends it becomes invaluable.

It is very difficult to accurately establish what the condition of the property was in after this length of time without documented evidence.

The Schedule usually becomes indispensable at the end of a lease, when the landlord is trying to determine what disrepair has arisen during the lease or the tenant is disputing errors in the dilapidations claim. It is the evidence that both parties rely upon to indicate the property condition at the start of the lease.

The parties involved at the end of the lease may be different to those that began the lease for various reasons, such as change in staff or sale of the property freehold.

Typically, the surveyor appointed by a surveyor prepares the Schedule of Condition, however, the documented is intended as a factual report and therefore either party can commission the Schedule. It is vital that the Schedule is issued and formally appended to the lease.

Without this correlation, the Schedule may have diminished effectiveness or may be deemed irrelevant to the dilapidations claim.

It is not mandatory for a Chartered Surveyor to prepare the Schedule, however, a document with poor quality photographs and vague descriptions is detrimental rather than beneficial at lease end.

Surveyors usually prepare the dilapidations claims and are therefore uniquely placed to know what to include within the Schedule at the outset. Detail and clarity is essential for the document to be useful in future years.