Building repairs

  • What is a Fixed Maintenance Charge?

    At Industrials we charge a fixed maintenance charge on our internal repairing and insuring leases. This allows tenants to forecast where their costs are going to be over the course of their lease, typically this charge increases by 3% per annum. The Fixed Maintenance Charge is established by reviewing the last 3 years’ service charge budget performance.

  • How does my maintenance and service charge work?

    Our units typically form part of a shared parade set within a shared estate. The common areas (such as central car parking, street lighting, landscaping and gritting) are tended to via contributions from our customers – this is paid via contributions toward the Service Charge or Fixed Maintenance Charge.

  • What liability for maintenance and repairs do I have?

    Standard Lease: Your repairing obligations are set out in your lease. Please refer to ‘tenant’s covenants’ and ‘repairing obligations’. These vary from lease to lease but if you have a Fully Repairing and Insuring lease, your responsibilities will typically include;

    • Repairs to the exterior and interior of the property, including the structure, external and internal cladding, roof, roller shutter door/s and all pedestrian doors.
    • Internal and external decoration
    • Maintaining, serving and repairing all services within the unit.
    • Landlord fixtures and fittings (including boilers and heaters).
    • Testing all services as per current legislation.
    • Any repairs or maintenance required.
    • Fire Risk Assessment

    Please note that this list is not exhaustive and is set out to provide guidance. Please read our helpful guide for more detail however please refer to your lease for your full repairing obligations.

    Smart Lease: Ordinarily Smart Leases are ‘Internal Repairing and Insuring’ only, which means you are not responsible for any external maintenance or repairs.  However, you are required to keep the inside of the property in a good state of repair during the term of your lease, and you are responsible for any damage (whether internal or external) caused by you or your visitors.

    Unless your lease is inclusive of dilapidations, at the end of your lease you will be required to carry out whatever works are required to return the property to a ‘good and substantial repair and condition’.  This is not necessarily the same as the condition of the premises when you took it (unless you have a Schedule of Condition attached to the lease), and so it is important to understand what may be required of you when you leave prior to signing your lease.  Industrials offers the option of a lease where dilapidations are not required, and so you are free to leave without undertaking any repairs at lease expiry.  For more information on dilapidations please see our blog post here, or get in touch with us by email or on 0800 1 22 3330.

  • I have a problem with my property – what should I do?

    If a problem occurs that you consider to be the responsibility of the Landlord, or for which you need some help, then this should be reported to help@industrials.co.uk or by calling your Customer Engagement Manager on 0800 122 3330.

  • What are dilapidations and why should I pay for them?

    Standard Lease: Dilapidations refer to works required to the property by you under the terms of your lease during occupation or when the lease ends.

    Unless you have a schedule of condition, you are normally obliged under the terms of your lease to keep your unit in a good state of repair and return it to us as such at the end of your lease. If you return your unit to us in poor condition, with belongings inside or your fixtures and fittings still in place, and we believe that your repairing obligations have not been met, we are entitled to serve a schedule of dilapidations on you. This identifies the relevant lease obligations and any breaches of those obligations. It will set out any remedial works that are required to rectify the breaches and the cost to undertake those works.

    We will seek to recover this cost from you so that we can return the unit to the condition you were obliged to keep it in.

    The surveyor’s fee for preparing and serving the schedule is also payable by you.

    Smart Lease: Under the terms of your lease you may not required to undertake any dilapidations, other than in relation to any damage caused by you or the cost of removing any of your fixtures and fittings at the end of your lease (if you have not already done so).  Please contact your Customer Engagement Manager if you are unsure as to whether you are required to undertake dilapidations at the end of your lease.

    Read more about dilapidations in our guide.

  • I have received a Schedule of Dilapidations – what should I do next?

    Please contact the surveyor as detailed within the Schedule if you have any queries or to arrange payment, or contact us on help@industrials.co.uk or 0800 1 22 3330 to speak to your Customer Engagement Manager.

     

  • What are dilapidations and how much will they cost me?

    Standard Lease: A dilapidations claim will be brought by a Landlord against a Tenant in the event that the state of the repair/condition of a building is less than that required under the terms of the lease. Typically this happens at the end of the lease when the tenant is seeking to move out, but it can also happen during the term of a lease if the Landlord believes the Tenant is not adequately maintaining the property in line with their obligations. A failure to meet these obligations is a ‘breach of lease’, and hence the Landlord is able to bring a claim. A typical dilapidations claim will cover all the works required to rectify the breach, including any repairs, maintenance or replacement of fixtures and fittings that the Landlord believes are required. The cost of preparing, serving and negotiating the dilapidations claim is usually included as a cost to the tenant. Claims are negotiable, and in most instances can be settled by the tenant undertaking the works required to an agreed standard and specification, or by way of financial payment.

    There is no such thing as a ‘standard claim’ under dilapidations as different tenants maintain their buildings to different standards. However, the Royal Institution for Chartered Surveyors (RICS) estimates that the average claim against an industrial tenant is £7.27 per square foot of their demise (see https://www.ibblaw.co.uk/insights/blog/dilapidations-uncovered ). This can be a very significant amount of money, so we recommend that you take this into consideration when budgeting the cost of taking a property. For more information please see the RICS website (http://www.rics.org/uk/tag/dilapidations/).

    Smart Lease: Under a Smart Lease you may not be liable for dilapidations, although you are required to repair any damage you have caused to the property.  If you are unsure as to whether dilapidations apply to you then please refer to your lease or contact your Customer Engagement Manager on 0800 1 22 3330.

    More information on dilapidations can be found on our blog here.