Surveying the scene

It is fair to say that hardly any claims for damages for dilapidations on the termination of a commercial lease are actually litigated all the way through to a trial and, indeed, comparatively few have any input from lawyers at all.

However, this is an area where an interesting debate is taking place between surveyors and lawyers involved in the dilapidations field as to the basis on which surveyors are acting, whether this affects how they can charge their clients, and the recoverability of fees from the other party.

Expert?

It is argued that expert status is assumed from the very beginning of the process, that it is from the inspection of the premises and either preparation of a schedule of dilapidations or responding to one.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ (RICS) Guidance Note on dilapidations and the Property Litigation Association Draft Pre-action Protocol both advocate Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) style statements of truth from surveyors. There is further guidance