How to Review Commercial Lease Dilapidations and Yield-Up in England

Slack wants the money on Friday, so the job is how to review commercial lease dilapidations and yield up england before anyone treats the cover line as a debt. Mark the yield-up and reinstatement promises, whether the claim is a schedule or a quantified demand, and whether section 18 of the 1927 Act or supersession caps it, then narrow the reinstatement list or walk. A blank cost column is not a bill, and 14 days on a cover email are not a sum.

In October 2026 the file is Unit 4, Wye Works, Monmouth, a 14-person willow picnic basket workshop leased from Wye Yard Ltd. This packet — the lease, the 14 June 2022 licence, the schedule, and the emails — is English law, courts of England and Wales. The term ends on 31 March 2027. There is no break. On 6 October a schedule with blank cost columns is called a quantified demand.

The same day the agent says the unit will be stripped to a shell and the mezzanine will come out. Slack on 8 October treats that uncosted schedule labelled as a quantified demand as a bill due in 14 days, and treats section 18 as a cap on the mezzanine, the paint, and the roof light. The pressure is Friday 16 October 2026. The typical mistake is agreeing first. This review splits yield-up, decoration, and reinstatement from that label.

In practice a schedule is not a quantified demand, and section 18(1) does not apply to decoration, removal, and reinstatement. For example, the RICS Dilapidations professional standard (7th edition, reissued December 2023) gives those items different damages rules. Those 14 days are this email.

Disclaimer: Checkory provides AI support, not legal advice. Consult a qualified lawyer for binding decisions.

How to review commercial lease dilapidations and yield up england on the yield-up promises

Clause 8.1 is the end-of-term handback, not an order to repair the roof, repaint now, and strip the mezzanine. Read it with clause 4.4 and clause 5.3. Do not collapse those three promises into one schedule line.

Clause 8.1 yields up at the end of the Term, with vacant possession, alterations removed if and to the extent clause 5.3 was triggered, and the tenant's chattels removed. The racks and the steamer are chattels. The mezzanine is not. Stevens & Bolton (16 March 2026) says vacant possession is not the physical standard, and that yielding-up collects repair, decoration, and reinstatement.

Clause 4.4 paints two coats in the last three months from 1 January 2027, whether or not the paint is in disrepair. Do not repaint now. Anstey Horne says the 3 to 12 months figure is experience, not this clause.

Clause 5.3's six months fall on 30 September 2026, so the 6 October letter is later. Do not call the notice void. The 14 June 2022 licence follows clause 5.3. RICS Code paragraph 8.5 has no day count.

What to check when a schedule is called a quantified demand

The 6 October paper lists breaches and works. The cost columns are blank. The cover calls it a quantified demand and allows 14 days. Check the columns before you treat the label as a sum. Pause if you would invent a claim figure.

The Dilapidations Protocol (updated 30 January 2017) separates them. Paragraph 3.1 is breaches, works, and costings if any. This paper has no endorsement. Paragraph 4.2 is a substantiated sum, VAT, a meeting, and usually 56 days. Paragraph 4.5 is likely loss, not automatically the works cost, and there is no invoice. RICS paragraph 8.2.2 says a cost summary is still not the demand.

What to check on the Dilapidations Protocol timelines

The Protocol times terminal damages for commercial property in England and Wales. The term ends on 31 March 2027, so the usual 56 days after termination have not opened. Friday is not a Protocol response date.

Avoid the housing-disrepair protocol. Paragraph 3.3's 56 days after termination have not started, and paragraph 3.4 still needs a confirmation at the end. Paragraph 5.2 waits for a quantified demand. Paragraph 7.1's 28-day meeting has not started. Myerson (6 June 2023) counts 56 days from the schedule.

Do not prefer it. Paragraph 9 wants a valuer's diminution valuation. The shell email is not one.

How to review the section 18 cap and supersession

Section 18(1) caps damages for a repair covenant. It does not cap the paint or the mezzanine, and the section does not say supersession. Check the clause on each line before one cap swallows the schedule.

Section 18 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927 caps repair damages at the diminution in the value of the reversion, and bars them if demolition or structural alterations would make those repairs valueless. RICS paragraph 8.1.6 leaves out decoration, removal, and reinstatement. Only the roof light and the slab, clause 4.1, sit under that cap. The shell email does not prove limb 2. Paint is clause 4.4. The mezzanine is clause 5.3.

Paragraph 4.6 says to omit items likely to be superseded. ABB, 30 July 2015, measured reinstatement at common law. Do not copy any sum.

When to separate an interim claim from a terminal claim

The 18 June 2026 letter and the October schedule are not one claim. June is interim, roof light only, under clause 4.6. October is a terminal-shaped schedule before the end. Do not cap June with section 18.

An interim schedule does not relate to yield-up, and paragraph 1.1 does not cover the June letter. Clause 4.6 recovers the cost as a debt after one month's notice. RICS puts that debt outside section 18(1). Jervis v Harris, Court of Appeal, 9 November 1995, was about repairs already done. These works are not done. Do not pay a blank debt.

Repair during the term is a different article. The whole office lease is on the commercial office lease checklist. The rest of this lease is the commercial lease review tool.

Before you narrow the reinstatement list or walk

Friday 16 October 2026 is a settlement ask, not a Protocol deadline. Narrow the reinstatement list or walk. Do not invent a pound figure. The result is a one-page log, and that log then narrows the reinstatement list or walks.

Keep the mezzanine off the list unless clause 5.3 is met, leave the paint for the last three months, and remove the racks under clause 8.1. Pause Friday with this sentence: the 6 October paper is a schedule with blank costs, not a quantified demand, and section 18 does not cap the mezzanine. That page is the success bar. Verify the flags. Workflow: clause 8.1 → clause 4.4 → clause 5.3 → blank schedule → section 18 on repair only → June stays interim → narrow the reinstatement list or walk.

A first-pass — a machine reading of the uploaded file — can mark yield up, last three months, quantified demand, and recover the cost as a debt. Use document analysis and the same file comes back with those risk flags. Check them against the log. A human still decides.