Dilapidations claims on large industrial units, warehouses and logistics buildings are a different proposition to a typical office or retail dispute. The floor areas are bigger, the sums involved are bigger, and a relatively small difference in the cost attributed per square metre — to a roof, a floor slab, or cladding — can create a difference of hundreds of thousands of pounds across a 100,000 to 400,000 sq ft building. At Bemerton Consulting, our RICS Chartered Building Surveyors act for both tenants and landlords dealing with dilapidations on warehouses, distribution centres, logistics sheds and industrial units across the North West and beyond.
Generic surveying advice often doesn't hold up on a large industrial building. The building pathology is different — steel portal frames, profiled cladding, large-format roof coverings, extensive floor slabs designed for heavy racking loads — and the commercial stakes mean claims are scrutinised far more closely by both sides. Getting the technical detail right, and understanding what genuinely constitutes disrepair against a tenant's lease obligations rather than betterment, is what separates a defensible position from an expensive one.
We regularly identify overstated items on warehouse and industrial dilapidations schedules — costs that assume full replacement where targeted repair would suffice, or works that go beyond what the lease actually requires. Our approach is to challenge costs that don't reflect the tenant's real lease obligations and negotiate evidence-based settlements, not to make promises we can't back up. We look closely at roof and cladding condition (including cut edge corrosion, a common but frequently overstated defect on steel-clad buildings), floor slab condition, and reinstatement obligations for racking, mezzanines and fit-out.
For landlords, we prepare robust, well-evidenced schedules of dilapidations that reflect the true condition and cost of remedial works on large industrial assets — giving you a defensible position from the outset rather than a claim that gets substantially reduced under challenge.
Warehouses and big-box logistics units, distribution centres, industrial sheds and units, manufacturing and production facilities, and cold storage and specialist industrial buildings.
Senior surveyor attention throughout — not work passed down a large corporate hierarchy — combined with commercially aggressive but technically grounded negotiation, and a genuine, current understanding of remedial costs on industrial buildings. Whether you need advice on a claim you've just received, or are preparing to serve one, we can help.
Contact our team today to discuss a warehouse or industrial dilapidations matter.
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Suite 119, The Cotton Exchange Bldg, Old Hall St, Liverpool L3 9LQ
Phone: 0151 559 2760
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