Protecting the reversion
The landlord's interest is the reversion. Disrepair and unreinstated tenant alterations diminish the value of that asset, and the dilapidations claim is the principal mechanism for recovering that diminution. A specialist-prepared schedule, supported by the right evidence, is the difference between a recoverable claim and a tactical write-down.
Schedule preparation under the Pre-Action Protocol
The Schedule of Dilapidations must be sufficiently particularised that the tenant can respond to each item. The Protocol expects the landlord's surveyor to endorse that the works claimed are reasonably required and that the costs are reasonable. Schedules that don't meet that standard are vulnerable to challenge.
Section 18 valuation evidence
Where the tenant raises Section 18, the landlord needs valuation evidence anchoring the diminution figure, particularly where the property is being marketed, refurbished or repositioned. Strong landlord-side Section 18 evidence is the difference between settling at the cost of works and settling at a tenant-friendly diminution.
Scott schedule negotiation
Following the tenant's protocol response, the parties' surveyors typically work through a Scott schedule (landlord's claim, tenant's response, agreed positions, residual disputes). Specialist landlord-side surveyor input drives the items that get conceded and the items that hold.
The Schedule of Condition: landlord perspective
A jointly-acknowledged Schedule of Condition at lease grant is, perhaps counter-intuitively, an asset for the landlord. It produces a defensible documented baseline that strengthens the dilapidations claim by removing argument about pre-existing items. Sophisticated landlord clients increasingly instruct schedules at every grant for precisely that reason.