Why the Best Time to Think About Lease End Is the Beginning

Dilapidations disputes are one of the most avoidable sources of financial pain in commercial property. Yet they catch landlords off guard, year after year — almost always because the groundwork wasn’t laid early enough.

When a tenant signs a commercial lease, dilapidations are the last thing on anyone’s mind. The focus is on terms, incentives, fit-out and getting them through the door. That’s understandable. But the conversation that feels premature at year one can become very expensive at year ten.

👉 What commercial property dilapidations mean in practice

In practice, the gap between what the lease says and what actually gets agreed is where significant sums are won and lost.

Landlords who are well-prepared argue from a position of strength. Those who aren’t tend to settle for less, but not because their claim is wrong, because they can’t prove it. That preparation starts well before lease end. An interim schedule of dilapidations, served during the tenancy when breaches emerge, keeps tenants accountable and stops problems compounding quietly in the background. By the time a terminal schedule is issued (typically in the final months of the lease or within 56 days of the tenant vacating) a landlord with a clear, evidenced record of condition throughout the tenancy is in a very different conversation to one without.

A schedule of dilapidations is only as strong as the evidence behind it. And that evidence starts accumulating from the moment a tenant takes occupation.

👉 The document most landlords underestimate

A thorough schedule of condition, properly recorded at the outset of a commercial lease, is one of the most valuable documents a landlord can hold. It establishes the baseline. Without it, dilapidations disputes become subjective — and subjective disputes tend to resolve in favour of whoever argues most confidently, not whoever is most right.

The same principle applies mid-lease. Regular inspections, properly documented, mean that when issues arise there is a clear, evidenced record — not a contested recollection.

👉 What forward-thinking landlords do differently

• Commission a schedule of condition before any tenant takes occupation
• Ensure lease obligations around repair and reinstatement are clearly and specifically drafted
• Maintain an ongoing record of building condition throughout the tenancy
• Understand their dilapidations position before serving notice, not after

None of this is complicated. But it does require the right expertise applied at the right moment — which, more often than landlords realise, is earlier in the process than they expect.

TSP advises landlords across the full lifecycle of their commercial assets, including the technical and legal complexities of dilapidations, from lease inception through to final settlement.

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