Ten years later, where is it?
At the start of the lease the tenant's solicitor insisted on a schedule of condition, with photographs, limiting the repairing obligation to the condition at the start. It was prepared, agreed and annexed. The completion bundle went to the solicitor's archive and a copy was saved in a folder named after the tenant, who has since changed its name.
Now the tenant is leaving. The surveyor asks for the schedule. The property team searches the shared drive, then asks the solicitor, who finds a scan with the photographs missing. Nobody is sure whether the version they have is the agreed one.
Why condition records disappear
The schedule of condition belongs to the space, but it is filed against the transaction. Over a lease term, the tenant, the managing agent, the property manager and possibly the owner all change. Files follow people and transactions, not units.
| Document | Where it typically ends up |
|---|---|
| Schedule of condition | Completion bundle at the solicitor |
| Photographs | A separate file, or a disc, or not annexed |
| Licences for alterations | Solicitor's file for that licence |
| Fit-out drawings | Tenant's contractor, if anyone |
| Inspection reports | Property manager's folder |
Buildings bought with tenants in place make it worse. The seller's managing agent hands over what it has, usually a lease bundle and a tenancy schedule. Schedules of condition annexed to older leases may be missing their photographs, and licences granted years ago may exist only in the seller's solicitor's archive. Unless someone checks at acquisition, the gaps are found at lease end.
When the space is relet, a new schedule is prepared, and it is filed against the new transaction, repeating the pattern.
What missing records cost
Without the agreed schedule, arguments about the condition a tenant must return the space in are harder for everyone. Solicitors and surveyors spend time searching. Photographs taken at the start, which may be the most useful evidence, are often the first to go. And each reletting starts from scratch because there is no picture of what was done to the space before.
The unit record we build
- Each lettable unit gets a permanent record, independent of the tenant or lease, with its floor plans and areas.
- Existing schedules of condition, licences, fit-out records and inspection reports are gathered, read with AI to identify the unit, date and document type, checked by a person, and filed against the unit.
- Photographs are stored with the schedule they belong to, with the date and the location in the unit.
- New documents are filed as they arrive: completion bundles, licences and reports are recognised and linked to the right unit.
- Periodic inspections are recorded on a mobile form with photos, building a condition history through the lease.
- At lease end, the unit record gives surveyors and solicitors everything in date order, with the agreed schedule clearly marked.
Which version of a document is the agreed one is a question for your solicitor. The record keeps every version and shows who marked which one as agreed.
How the unit's history helps day to day
At lease end, the surveyor gets the schedule and photos the same day. At reletting, the letting agent knows what was installed, what was removed and what the space was like. At acquisition or sale, the data room is quicker to assemble. When a tenant asks for a licence to alter, you can see what has already been done to the space.
The inspections recorded through the lease matter too. A photo set taken mid-term, dated and linked to the unit, often settles a question about when damage happened better than any recollection.
Is this your situation?
- Schedules of condition are hard to find at lease end.
- Photographs from the start of a lease are missing.
- Files are organised by tenant or transaction, not by unit.
- Licences for alterations are held only by solicitors.
- Each reletting starts with no condition history.