rics Dilapidations Surveyors & Defects & Workmanship Reports

At Synergy, we offer expert advice and support in managing Dilapidations Claims for both Landlords and Tenants. 

With extensive experience in preparing and negotiating dilapidations claims, we guide our clients through the complexities of the process to ensure the best possible outcomes.

Whether you’re reviewing your current lease, planning to enter into a new one, or dealing with a tenant or landlord, understanding dilapidations liabilities is essential.

The Dilapidations process is often complex, involving not only repairs and redecoration but also reinstating alterations and ensuring statutory compliance. It’s essential to have the right expertise on your side:

• Multi-Disciplinary Approach: Dilapidations claims may require the input of a Building Surveyor, Solicitor, and possibly a Valuer & other Specialist Consultants. Our RICS Chartered Surveyors can help coordinate these professionals to navigate the claims process smoothly.
• RICS Protocol: We work in accordance with the RICS Protocol and civil procedure rules to ensure transparency, fairness, and professionalism throughout the process.

Tenants

 As a Tenant, it's crucial to understand your dilapidation liabilities when exiting or renewing a lease. Dilapidations can affect your break or exit strategy, even if you haven’t carried out the work yourself. Our services include:

• Understanding Liabilities: We help tenants identify potential dilapidations costs that could impact the exit strategy, including repairs, reinstatement of alterations, and compliance with statutory obligations.
• Break Clause Strategy: If your lease includes a break clause, we advise on the implications for dilapidations liabilities and the financial impact, helping you avoid pitfalls that could jeopardise the clause or create unexpected costs.
• Forecasting Costs: We work with tenants to forecast dilapidations costs for their balance sheets, ensuring better management of business accommodation needs and liabilities.
• Negotiation: Our surveyors work to negotiate a fair and equitable settlement of dilapidations claims, protecting your financial interests throughout the process.

Landlords

For Landlords, dilapidations can be a significant part of managing a property portfolio. If your tenant is vacating, we can assist you in:

• Serving a Dilapidations Schedule: We ensure that a comprehensive Schedule of Dilapidations is prepared and served to the tenant in a timely manner, following a strategy that aims to achieve the best possible outcome for you.
• Costing:  We will budget cost breaches of covenants and associated costs of a claim, we can strategise more definitive costing and claims as the situation requires.
• Reducing Compensation: If you plan to redevelop or alter the site, we can help you strategise ways to reduce compensation claims and mitigate potential losses.
• Negotiating Claims: Our team expertly negotiates dilapidations claims, working on your behalf to reach a settlement that aligns with your objectives, while ensuring that the tenant’s obligations are clearly defined and enforced.

Dilapidations is dealing with breaches of covenants in a lease, as such the recognised way of scheduling and budgeting a claim is using a Scott schedule.  Synergy will provide a Scott schedule for dilapidation claims.

If in negotiation, Synergy can interpret Scotts Schedule claims and will counter these with our own take on the breach.  There is always more than one way to deal with a claim item and budgets can vary between surveyors, will aim to come to an amicable settlement.

We have RICS-certified Expert Witness Surveyors who are trained in CPR Part 35 reporting. If your case is going — or likely to go — legal, we can provide an impartial, unbiased expert opinion in the form of an expert witness report, focused on an agreed area of dispute within our professional experience.

When adapting or fitting out a property, Licences may be required to ensure compliance with the lease terms. We offer the following services related to licences:

• Tenant Licences: We assist in the preparation of licence documentation for tenant applications, ensuring compliance with lease obligations.
• Reviewing Licences: We can also review any licences submitted by tenants to landlords, ensuring that they are fair and in line with the lease requirements.