Surveys and compliance
M&E dilapidations surveys
Mechanical and electrical input to schedules of dilapidations, for landlords and tenants — what the lease actually requires, costed, and defensible.
- Discipline
- Surveys and compliance
WHAT IT IS
Dilapidations is the process of establishing what a tenant owes at the end of a lease for the condition of the premises. The mechanical and electrical element is frequently the largest single line in the schedule and the least well evidenced on both sides.
The work is to establish three things: what the lease and any schedule of condition actually require, what state the services are genuinely in, and what it would cost to put right only what is owed. That last distinction is where most of the money is. A claim written from a wish list rather than from the lease does not survive scrutiny, and a response that concedes items outside the repairing obligation pays for someone else's upgrade.
WHEN YOU NEED IT
For a landlord, before serving a terminal schedule — and ideally at the interim stage, while the tenant still has time to comply rather than to negotiate.
For a tenant, as early as possible before lease expiry or break. Break clauses conditional on the state of the premises are unforgiving, and the M&E items — plant condition, statutory testing records, missing O&M information, alterations never reinstated — are the ones that take longest to put right.
OUR PROCESS
The lease, licences for alterations and any schedule of condition are read first, because they define the obligation and nothing else does. The services are then surveyed against that obligation rather than against current standards, since a tenant is not generally liable to upgrade an installation that was compliant when it was installed.
Each item is recorded with its evidence, the clause it arises under, and a cost. Items that are arguable are marked as arguable rather than presented as settled — a schedule where every line is contested loses the ones that were sound.
DELIVERABLES
What you receive
- M&E section of a schedule of dilapidations, clause by clause
- Photographic evidence and asset condition record
- Costed remedial schedule, separating owed from arguable
- Review of the tenant response, or of the landlord claim
- Statutory testing and O&M documentation gap analysis
STANDARDS
Standards applied
The editions in force at the time of design. Where a standard is amended mid-project we confirm which edition the appointment is based on.
- Dilapidations ProtocolPre-action protocol for claims for damages in relation to the physical state of commercial propertyMinistry of Justice
- RICS DilapidationsGuidance note, England and WalesRICS
- BS 7671:2018+A4:2026Requirements for Electrical InstallationsIET
- CIBSE Guide MMaintenance engineering and managementCIBSE
- SFG20Standard maintenance specification for building servicesSFG20
QUESTIONS
Common questions
What is included in an M&E dilapidations schedule?
The mechanical, electrical and public health items a tenant is liable for under the lease: plant left in disrepair, alterations not reinstated, missing or expired statutory testing records, missing operating and maintenance information, and services not left in the condition the repairing obligation requires. Each item should cite the clause it arises under and carry a cost.
Is a tenant liable to bring building services up to current standards?
Generally no. A repairing obligation requires the tenant to repair, not to improve, so an installation that complied when it was installed does not usually have to be brought up to a later edition of a standard. The exceptions are where the lease says otherwise, where a statutory duty applies to the tenant directly, or where a repair cannot lawfully be carried out except to the current standard.
When should a tenant get M&E dilapidations advice?
Well before lease expiry, and much earlier if a break clause is conditional on the condition of the premises. Several common M&E items — a periodic inspection with unsatisfactory results, missing commissioning records, reinstating alterations — take weeks or months to resolve, and cannot be fixed once the date has passed.