Dilapidations Surveyors in Paddington: Schedules, Claims & Lease-End Advice

Distinguish a Paddington Green unit from the wider district

Westminster's Paddington Green audit identifies the green, churchyard and St Mary's Gardens as the surviving village core, with St Mary's Church as its focal building. It describes surrounding fabric of different periods rather than a uniform estate. Use that record only where it is relevant to the instructed address; a Paddington commercial premises elsewhere needs its own building information. Establish the lease boundary, occupied floors and external elements from the executed plan and documents. A business entrance in an adapted building does not determine who repairs the roof or shared services. Review any condition schedule and amendments before allocating obligations to components beyond the clearly identified demise.

Request the tenant's alteration licences, layout drawings and available photographs showing the initial fit-out and subsequent changes. Locate partitions, signs, equipment and service penetrations so each proposed reinstatement item can be checked against the relevant provision. Seek advice on notices and disputed terms before assuming the landlord can require a preferred replacement layout. Where a feature predates the letting, distinguish it from the current tenant's work. Missing commencement evidence should be recorded rather than replaced with an assumption about original construction. The schedule needs to explain removal and making good at the actual component, not simply price a general strip-out because the unit occupies older accommodation.

Local evidence: Westminster: Paddington Green audit, pages 15 and 20–22.

Separate St Mary’s Terrace fabric from mansion-block obligations

The Paddington Green audit identifies stucco terraces on St Mary's Terrace and mansion blocks towards the north-west of the designated area. It also records brick and surviving timber windows within the varied stock. At the actual leased property, locate the alleged breach by element and show the evidence for its condition. A terrace window, a common entrance and a larger block roof raise different questions about extent and responsibility. Separate redecoration, repair and replacement, identifying the material and any investigation needed to settle the treatment. An architectural description cannot establish deterioration, while a similar nearby building cannot supply the appropriate specification or the tenant's obligation.

Record whether the instruction is an interim review during the term, a terminal schedule near expiry or an assessment following departure. Maintain dates and references when tenant works are completed between inspections, explaining what remains outstanding and what could not be inspected. If services form part of the claim, identify their location, equipment and maintenance evidence rather than combining unrelated installations into one allowance. RICS guidance supports a structured schedule and response in which the contractual basis, allegation, proposed remedy and cost can be examined. Keep a dispute over shared-block responsibility distinct from the technical question of how an observed component should be repaired.

Local evidence: Westminster: Paddington Green audit, pages 15 and 20–22; RICS: Dilapidations in England and Wales.

Test the Paddington landlord’s intended works against the schedule

Where the landlord proposes to remodel a unit or undertake a wider block project, obtain the actual plans, decision record and expected timing. Identify components that would be retained, altered or removed and compare them with the claimed repairs or reinstatement. A scheme affecting a St Mary's Terrace conversion may have a different scope from work in a mansion block, but the building category alone does not determine the outcome. Do not infer future use or reletting plans from the Paddington address. Separate an aspiration from evidenced intentions, and obtain planning or valuation information where unresolved decisions prevent a reliable assessment of the effect on the alleged loss.

Section 18(1) limits damages for breach of a repairing covenant by the resulting diminution in the value of the reversion. It also addresses demolition or structural alterations at or shortly after lease termination that would make the relevant repairs valueless. This is not an automatic cap on every category of a dilapidations claim. Obtain the appropriate legal and valuation assessment for the facts. Supersession should be considered against the landlord's evidenced intentions and the particular work claimed; a repair-cost total is not, by itself, proof of the loss to be demanded.

Local evidence: Westminster: Paddington Green audit, pages 15 and 20–22; Landlord and Tenant Act 1927, section 18; Civil Procedure Rules: Dilapidations Protocol.

Cost the Paddington route and return of shared areas

A repair estimate should identify the unloading point, retained pedestrian route and transfer from the street to the actual Paddington workface. Establish any temporary-structure, lifting or parking arrangements through the appropriate Westminster procedures, with private permissions checked separately. If access passes through shared entrances or protected surfaces, record their initial condition and the limits of the permitted operation. The Paddington Green setting does not make nearby gardens or open space available for equipment. Show how materials and waste move through the building and what protection is needed. An unconfirmed loading assumption should remain visible rather than be treated as a settled duration or cost in the demand.

Include the removal of temporary equipment and the agreed reinstatement of affected surfaces as identifiable parts of the method. Explain quantities, labour and hire periods, supported by a price or invoice, and allocate costs that serve several items without duplication. Separate access also needed for a landlord improvement. Under the terminal dilapidations protocol, a Quantified Demand should substantiate the claimed loss rather than reproduce an unexplained works total. Retain the tenant's response, photographs, lease references and evidence of intentions under consistent item numbers. That record helps distinguish a disagreement about the necessary remedy from one concerning delivery logistics, shared-area protection or the financial consequence of the alleged breach.

Local evidence: Westminster: temporary structure, crane and road closure licences; Westminster: suspensions, dispensations and skips; Westminster: March 2026 construction code, chapters 1–4 and 12; Westminster: Paddington Green audit, pages 15 and 20–22; Civil Procedure Rules: Dilapidations Protocol.

Paddington lease-end questions