Commercial tenants: ‘Look before you leap’ into your new lease

By Ian Whiteside, Trevor Dawson

• “The property is in far better condition now than when I first moved in, why am I now faced with a huge repairs bill?”

• “All partitions, fixtures and fittings were installed when we took occupation, why should we be responsible for removing them?”

To all tenants looking to acquire a commercial leasehold property, we strongly recommend appointing a Chartered Building Surveyor with proven experience in property dilapidations to inspect the property and advise accordingly in conjunction with lease negotiations involving your legal advisors, property agent and landlord representatives.

Here are some examples of issues that a Chartered Building Surveyor can advise on with your legal advisors during the negotiation and drafting of a new lease to mitigate future dilapidations liabilities:

2. Detailed scheduling of landlord and tenant’s fixtures and fittings for attachment and reference to the lease including agreement of all those items to be removed at lease expiry.

4. Identification and requests for ‘missing’ statutory documents from the landlord such as an Asbestos Management Plan for the property.