Dilapidations inspections

The surveyor may find that, in the light of the initial inspection, it is apparent that further investigation is needed, requiring input from other professionals such as services or structural engineers, or perhaps specialist testing such as asbestos analysis, possibly including exploratory work. When this is justified, the agreement of the client and, where appropriate, the tenant should be obtained and the surveyor should liaise as necessary between the various parties involved. Importantly, it is incumbent on the surveyor to advise the client that if no defects are discovered then the cost of specialist inspections is unlikely to be recoverable from the tenant.

It is the landlord’s surveyor’s responsibility to ensure that any specialist information that is provided is capable of inclusion in the schedule in a manner that is capable of interpretation by the recipient.

Further guidance on the instruction of specialists and sub-consultants is provided in the guidance note (section 3.1) and this issue is further explored in Quantified demand.