PRESS RELEASE

27 February 2017

WORCESTERSHIRE BUSINESSES LOSING MONEY ON PROPERTY REPAIRS

Worcestershire businesses which rent commercial property are facing unexpected bills at the expiry of their leases, as they do not understand what building repairs they have to pay for, according to a leading Building Surveyor.

Mark Davies, Director of Building Surveying Services at Worcestershire commercial property consultancy and Chartered Surveyors GJS Dillon, says many businesses do not take professional advice on the repairing obligations they enter into as part of their lease and so end up paying out more than they need to.

He says: “There is a general lack of understanding of repairing obligations, or dilapidations, which means that failure to take advice from the outset is costing Worcestershire businesses millions of pounds a year. 

"Tenants have to understand that if a lease calls for them to keep a property in good repair, they may first have to put it into good repair.  Many tenants wrongly believe they merely have to return it to the landlord in the state in which they had taken it over,” continues Mr Davies who has more than 20 years building surveying experience and is a fully qualified member of the Chartered Institute of Building.

Although repair bills from the landlord at the end of the lease can be high, they are negotiable says Mr Davies, particularly if you have a chartered building surveyor representing you.

He says: “Recently one of my colleagues saved a local automotive business nearly £40,000 in building repairs at the end of their lease on a garage premises.  The landlord presented them with a repair bill for £60,000, but after months of hard negotiations, he was able to reduce the bill to a little over £20,000.”

According to Mr Davies, the best way to limit a tenant’s repairing liability is by agreeing a “Schedule of Condition” at the start of the lease.

He says: “A Chartered Surveyor documents in words and pictures the state of repair of premises at the outset of a lease which ensures that the tenants’ requirements are to return the premises to their equivalent state at the end of the lease.”

With offices in Worcester, Bromsgrove and Droitwich, GJS Dillon provides advice on all aspects of new leases and lease renewals, including Schedules of Condition and Dilapidation Reports.  For further information, please contact Mark Davies either tel. 01905 676169 or tel. 01527 872525 or by email: markdavies@gjsdillon.co.uk.

Picture caption: Mark Davies, Director of Building Surveying Services at GJS Dillon.

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