A schedule of dilapidations is the landlord’s statement, at or near the end of a commercial lease, of the ways in which the tenant has failed to meet the repairing, decorating, reinstatement and yielding-up obligations in the lease, together with the works needed to put that right and what those works will cost. The tenant’s surveyor will reply to it line by line. If a claim follows, the schedule and the reply become the basis of negotiation and, occasionally, of a court’s view of the matter.
That makes it an unusual document. It is not a description of a building. It is a set of assertions, each of which has to be tied to a clause, supported by a photograph and priced. This post sets out how to build one so that each row stands up.
Report Kit 360 has a dilapidations schedule template built for interim, terminal and final schedules, acting for either party. The last section explains how it maps to the structure described here.
Know what kind of schedule you are writing
The three common forms:
- An interim schedule, served during the term, usually to prompt repair while the lease still runs.
- A terminal schedule, served shortly before or at the end of the term, setting out the works required to comply with the lease at expiry.
- A final schedule, served after the lease has ended, which forms the basis of a damages claim and is the one the Dilapidations Protocol is concerned with.
The structure is the same; the consequences differ. A final schedule in England and Wales is expected to be accompanied by a quantified demand and is subject to the statutory cap on damages in section 18 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927, under which the landlord cannot recover more than the reduction in the value of the reversion caused by the disrepair. The surveyor’s schedule does not decide that question, but it should be written knowing it will be asked.
Read the lease first, and record what you read
The schedule is only as good as the clauses it relies on. Before inspecting, read the lease and any licences for alterations, the schedule of condition if one was attached, and any side letters that limit the repairing obligation. Note the clause numbers for repair, decoration, alterations and reinstatement, yielding up, and compliance with statute.
Record all of that in the introduction. A schedule that says which documents were reviewed, and which were not available, is harder to attack than one that simply starts at the front door.
Inspect room by room, element by element
The inspection should be systematic in the same way a schedule of condition is: each room or area, each element within it (ceiling, walls, floor, windows, doors, joinery, services, fittings), and the external and common parts if they fall within the demise. For each item of disrepair, photograph it with a marker on the defect and note the location in terms the tenant can find.
Photographs matter more in dilapidations than in almost any other survey, because the property will have been handed back and possibly stripped out by the time anyone disputes the schedule. A numbered photograph cross-referenced to the item is the evidence that the defect existed on the inspection date.
Build the schedule row by row
The conventional columns:
- Item number.
- Location (room or area, and element).
- Clause: the lease provision breached.
- Breach: what the tenant has failed to do, in factual terms.
- Remedy: the works required to put it right.
- Photograph reference.
- Cost: the landlord’s estimate for the remedy.
If the schedule will be answered in Scott schedule form, add two further columns for the tenant’s comments and the tenant’s figure, and leave them blank.
Write the breach as an observation, not a conclusion: “the suspended ceiling tiles are stained and three are missing in the north-west corner” rather than “the ceiling is in disrepair”. Write the remedy as an instruction a contractor could price: “replace the missing tiles and clean or replace stained tiles to match, approximately 12 m²”. Keep the clause reference exact.
Price the remedy, and show the sums
The cost column is the part most likely to be challenged. Set out the basis: a contractor’s quotation, a measured estimate at stated rates or a budget figure, and say which. Add the preliminaries, professional fees and VAT as separate lines, so the tenant’s surveyor can see what is in the total and argue about one line rather than the whole.
Subtotals by section (external, internal, services, reinstatement) make negotiation easier, because the parties can agree three sections and argue about the fourth.
Put the standard wording where it belongs
Every practice has wording it reuses: the basis of the inspection, the status of the costs, the reservation of the landlord’s position, the note about section 18. Keep it in a snippet library and insert it rather than copying from the last schedule, so that nothing from a previous instruction survives into this one.
Building it in Report Kit 360
Create the report from the dilapidations schedule template and set its variables: the type of schedule (interim, terminal or final), who you are acting for (landlord or tenant) and whether to include costs. The template opens with document control, an introduction, a section for the property, lease and parties, and the basis of the schedule with a High, Medium and Low priority guide.
The schedule itself is a Scott-schedule-style findings schedule, repeated for the external fabric, for each internal area you add, and for services, statutory compliance and yielding up. Its columns are the ones above: item reference, clause, breach, remedial works, liability and a cost flag, with the numbered photo markers beside each section. Fault types such as want of repair, redecoration due, unauthorised alteration and reinstatement required are suggested as you go, and tags such as disputed, supersession and diminution are there for the later exchange.
A summary of priorities counts the High, Medium and Low items. The summary of costs is a static table on Basic, with the totals typed; on Pro it becomes a formula table with SUM for subtotals, lines for fees and VAT, and a total that updates when an item changes. Pro also exports the schedule as XLSX, which is the practical way to send a Scott schedule to the other side for their columns; CSV export is on every plan.
Merge the lease extracts and the original schedule of condition into the documents appendix (up to 3 PDF pages on Basic, unlimited on Pro). Insert the standard wording from snippets, complete the surveyor’s endorsement and signature, clear the checks and issue. The issued version carries a checksum and the share page a Verify link, so the version served is the version that can be verified later.
If you adjust the structure, Save as template keeps your version. The next instruction starts with your columns and wording already in place.
A short checklist
- Lease, licences and any attached schedule of condition read and listed.
- Every item: location, clause, breach, remedy, photo, cost.
- Breaches written as observations, remedies written as instructions.
- Costs with their basis, and fees and VAT shown separately.
- Standard wording from snippets.
- Issued, not just exported, and sent as a share link.
The schedule that survives the reply is the one where each row carries its own evidence. Build it that way from the start.
Report Kit 360 is a trading name of [Digital Depth Studio Ltd]. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by RICS, and nothing in this post is legal advice. The content of a schedule and its endorsement remain the responsibility of the surveyor who prepares it.
