Strip out, repairs, redecoration and making good, priced item by item from the schedule and planned back from the lease date.
Dilapidations
The Lynch Brother Group is an office dilapidations contractor for tenants and landlords across Oxford and Oxfordshire. We take a schedule of dilapidations and carry out the works it lists, from strip out and repairs to redecoration and making good, in offices, shops and laboratories, to a programme that ends before the lease does. Send us the schedule and the lease date; we will price every item and say what can be done in time.
Every item on the schedule of dilapidations priced on its own, so you and your surveyor can see what each one costs to put right.
Removal of the partitions, ceilings, floor finishes, cabling and fixtures the schedule says must come out, with the waste cleared and documented.
Putting back what the fit out took away: openings closed, floors and ceilings made good, services capped off or put back as first provided.
Repairs to the walls, floors, doors, ironmongery and windows the schedule lists, done by our own trades to the standard the schedule sets.
Lighting, power, heating and ventilation returned to a safe, working condition, tested and certified for the landlord's surveyor.
Redecoration in the colours and finishes the schedule specifies, by our own decorators, usually the last trade before the keys go back.
A final clean, the waste notes and certificates in one pack, and the premises ready for the landlord's inspection on the agreed date.
Office dilapidations are the repairs, reinstatement and redecoration a lease requires when the premises are handed back, at the end of the term or at a break clause. The landlord's schedule lists the gap between that condition and what is there now. You can settle that with the landlord, or have the works done before the date. If you do the works, you set the scope and see the price of every item first.
When a tenant has gone, the space has to earn again. We carry out the reinstatement, repairs and redecoration that bring it back to a lettable standard. If the next tenant is already lined up, the same team carries straight on into their fit out.
A lease end date or a break clause date does not move, so the programme runs backwards from it. We fix the start date, the sequence and the handover date with you, and the programme ends with time in hand for the landlord's surveyor to walk round.
Office and commercial dilapidations works are usually let to several firms: a strip-out crew, a builder, an electrician and a decorator, each with their own programme and each waiting on the last. Ours run as one programme. Strip out, building work and decorating and finishes are done by our own teams, sequenced by one site team, with one point of accountability from the first survey to the inspection.
We price from the schedule, not from a lump sum. Each item gets its own figure. Your surveyor negotiates from real numbers, and you decide item by item which works to do now. Ask for it as soon as the schedule arrives.
Much of this work is in Oxford and across the county, in buildings that are still busy. Other tenants are trading on the floors above and below, and sometimes your own staff are still in the space. We plan the noisy work, the deliveries and the out-of-hours shifts with you and with the landlord or their managing agent, so the building keeps working while the premises come back to condition.
For landlords, the job need not end at the inspection. The same group can keep the building in repair through property management and planned maintenance, from people who already know it. If you are new to the process, our article What is a schedule of dilapidations? explains the document itself.
Science & Laboratories
Lab fit out and refurbishment
Workspace & Offices
Cat A, Cat B and full building refurbishment
Retail
Shopfitting and fit outs that open on time
Hospitality
Refurbishments designed around trading hours
Education
Schools and colleges; summer works a speciality
Student Accommodation
Build and refurb, timed to the academic year
Residential Development
Multi-plot schemes, groundworks to handover
Heritage & Listed
Conservation-grade work on period buildings
How dilapidations works run
Every schedule is priced item by item from its own survey. Send us yours.
Main Contracting
Main contractor and design and build partner
New Build Construction
Offices, labs, education and residential development
Fit Out & Refurbishment
Cat A, Cat B and full refurbishment
Dilapidations
Strip out, repairs and making good, for tenants and landlords
Retrofit & Decarbonisation
External wall insulation, render systems and energy upgrades
Screed, Render & Insulation
Liquid screed, spray rendering and external wall insulation
Decorating & Finishes
High-end decorating and tiling — the final finish
Property Management & Maintenance
Planned maintenance for landlords and businesses
From the site office
The lease decides. It sets the condition the premises must be handed back in, and the landlord's surveyor lists what falls short in a schedule of dilapidations. The tenant can then settle the schedule with the landlord or have the works done before the lease ends. Your surveyor will advise which. Our part is the works: we price each item on the schedule, so you know what it would cost to put right before you decide.
The time limits are a question for your surveyor or solicitor. For the works, one date matters: the day the lease ends or the break takes effect. For a tenant, the premises must be back in condition by then, so the sooner we see the schedule, the more we can do in time. For a landlord, the works can start the day the keys come back. Either way, talk to us before the schedule is final.
That is one for your surveyor or solicitor, but in practice both sides work to it. The Dilapidations Protocol is the pre-action protocol for England and Wales: it sets out how the landlord's schedule and the tenant's response are exchanged before a claim reaches court. Where we come in is the response. A reply with a contractor's price against each item has real numbers behind it, so we price every item separately and give the figures to your surveyor.
A dilapidations contractor carries out the works the schedule describes: strip out, reinstatement, repairs, mechanical and electrical works, redecoration and the final clean. We price each item, plan the programme back from the lease date, attend the landlord's inspection and hand over the certificates and waste notes with the keys. We do not prepare or negotiate the schedule; that is your surveyor's work, and we work alongside them.
Yes, and they often are. Works are phased floor by floor or room by room, with the noisy work in agreed windows, and out-of-hours shifts where the lease limits working hours or the neighbours need quiet. Deliveries and waste are routed away from the areas still in use. The same applies to works under an interim schedule of dilapidations during the term, where the tenant stays in occupation and the building has to keep working around the trades.
Something else on your mind? Ask us directly.
Planning something serious — commercial, residential or a property portfolio that needs looking after? Send the outline and we'll take it from there.
