A schedule that keeps growing columns
A commercial lease is ending. Acting for the landlord, your surveyor inspects the property and prepares a schedule of dilapidations: each item, the lease clause it relates to, the remedy, a cost, and photos. The tenant's surveyor responds, adding columns for their comments and their view of cost. Your surveyor replies. Another column. Then a meeting, and a revised schedule.
By the end, the spreadsheet is wide, the photos are in a separate folder, and nobody is sure which response belongs to which round. Acting for tenants, the same thing happens in reverse.
Why dilapidations schedules get messy
- Each round of negotiation adds columns rather than recording a history.
- Photos are referenced by number, and the numbering breaks when items are added.
- Lease clauses are quoted inconsistently across items.
- Costs are revised without a record of why.
- The schedule is emailed back and forth, so versions multiply.
What that costs the surveyor and client
Time spent managing the document rather than the negotiation. Mistakes when a response is lost between versions. Weaker positions when a cost change cannot be explained. And clients who cannot easily see where things stand.
| Element | Spreadsheet approach | Schedule tool |
|---|---|---|
| Items | Rows, renumbered by hand | Stable references, added without renumbering |
| Lease clauses | Typed per item | Chosen from the lease's clause list |
| Photos | Separate folder, numbered | Attached to each item |
| Responses | New columns each round | Threaded per item with dates |
| Costs | Overwritten | Each revision kept with a reason |
The schedule tool we build
- The relevant lease clauses are entered or extracted from the lease, with a person checking the extraction.
- On site, the surveyor records items by location on a tablet, with photos and the clause each relates to.
- Remedies and costs are added at the desk, with each cost recording its basis.
- The schedule is shared with the other side's surveyor through a link, and responses are recorded per item, with dates.
- Each round of negotiation is a version, and the history of any item can be read top to bottom.
- The schedule exports to the spreadsheet or document format the parties expect, with photos alongside items.
What is a breach, what the remedy should be and what it costs are matters of professional judgement and, where relevant, legal advice. The tool keeps the schedule straight.
Negotiating from a clean schedule
Each item has its clause, photos, costs and full negotiation history in one place. Meetings run from a shared view. Clients can see progress. If the matter goes further, the history is easy to present.
Summaries come for free. At any point the surveyor can see the total claimed, the total agreed, the items still in dispute and the items withdrawn, broken down by clause or by trade. That is the view a client wants before deciding whether to settle, and it no longer needs building in a separate spreadsheet.
Interim schedules work the same way. Where a landlord wants a schedule served during the lease rather than at the end, the items carry forward into the terminal schedule, and the surveyor can show which were remedied in between and which were not.
Schedules for similar properties can be started from a previous one, with the items, clauses and photos cleared, which gives surveyors a structure without carrying over details from another building.
Is your dilapidations work like this?
- Schedules grow new columns each round.
- Photos are in a separate folder from the schedule.
- Items get renumbered and references break.
- Cost changes are hard to explain later.
- Several versions of the schedule are in circulation.