Identify the Poplar shop and accommodation above it
Tower Hamlets' Lansbury appraisal, adopted in March 2008, records shops around Chrisp Street Market with two-storey residences above. It also describes predominantly two- to four-storey housing and later development containing taller blocks and maisonettes. These are historical descriptions of the defined conservation setting, not evidence of today's occupiers or lease boundaries. For a commercial unit, identify the demised shop, storage, upper rooms if included and external service spaces from the executed lease and plan. A business below accommodation does not automatically repair the roof or every facade element. Review amendments, shared-service provisions and any condition schedule before allocating obligations beyond the actual premises.
Obtain the current fit-out plan and alteration licences for signs, partitions, equipment and service penetrations. Compare the commencement record with present conditions, distinguishing tenant additions from landlord fittings and work by other occupiers. A reinstatement request should identify the relevant provision, any notice requirement and the proposed making good. Seek legal advice where the documents are uncertain rather than infer a right to demand a new layout. If a service crosses into shared space or accommodation above, locate that interface and establish responsibility. A general strip-out allowance can conceal a disputed boundary, so keep each requested removal tied to its particular installation and evidence.
Local evidence: Tower Hamlets: Lansbury appraisal, adopted 5 March 2008, pages 8–9; Tower Hamlets: Lansbury appraisal, pages 5–7.
Distinguish Poplar terrace details from Lansbury fabric
The All Saints Poplar appraisal describes surviving terraces around Montague Place and Bazely Street, noting variations within an otherwise coherent frontage. The Lansbury account associates its Festival section with stock brick and slate while also describing civic buildings of different forms and materials. For an instructed commercial premises, establish which construction is actually involved rather than transfer a terrace or post-war specification across Poplar. Locate each alleged breach with photographs and describe the observed condition. Separate redecoration, repair and replacement, identifying any investigation needed before determining the extent. Neither an architectural group nor its age proves a common defect or a tenant's responsibility for neighbouring fabric.
Set the inspection within the lease cycle: an interim review records matters during the term, a terminal schedule concerns handover, and a later visit can identify the position after departure or tenant works. Retain stable references as conditions change, showing what has been completed and what remains inaccessible or disputed. Service items should identify the actual equipment, distribution and maintenance evidence rather than use one unexplained replacement sum. RICS guidance provides a framework for the schedule and response based on obligations, allegations, remedies and costs. That keeps a question about the commercial demise separate from the technical evidence for a particular masonry, roofing or services remedy.
Local evidence: Tower Hamlets: All Saints Poplar appraisal, pages 6–7; Tower Hamlets: Lansbury appraisal, pages 5–7; RICS: Dilapidations in England and Wales.
Assess the landlord’s Poplar proposal at the particular unit
If the landlord proposes to alter a market-side unit, change its fit-out or carry out wider building works, request the actual scheme and evidence of the decision. Identify the components to be retained, replaced or removed and compare them with the claimed repairs and reinstatement. The 2008 description of shops and housing does not establish a current redevelopment intention or a future tenant. Do not infer the loss assessment from an assumed neighbourhood project. Record the timing and unresolved permissions, separating a preliminary proposal from instructed works. Where a quote includes landlord improvements, explain that distinction before treating the project's total as the consequence of the tenant's alleged breach.
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: Tower Hamlets: Lansbury appraisal, adopted 5 March 2008, pages 8–9; Tower Hamlets: Lansbury appraisal, pages 5–7; Landlord and Tenant Act 1927, section 18; Civil Procedure Rules: Dilapidations Protocol.
Price Poplar shared approaches and retained boundaries explicitly
The Lansbury appraisal describes houses and flats grouped around closes and squares connected by landscaped spaces. The All Saints account identifies the railed churchyard and its relationship to nearby streets and East India Dock Road. Such open or shared settings do not establish an available contractor route. For the actual repair, show unloading, handling, temporary equipment and any boundary interface, with the authority for each proposed operation. Confirm whether shared approaches remain in use and record protection and reinstatement of affected surfaces. A garden, close or churchyard visible beside a unit is not evidence of storage rights, and a general access premium cannot explain the necessary operation.
The supporting estimate should state quantities, labour, equipment duration and waste handling for the documented method. Allocate common access across relevant items and distinguish anything also serving a landlord improvement. If the tenant offers another route or repair extent, compare its practical and permission evidence rather than only the total. The terminal dilapidations protocol requires a substantiated demand for loss, which may differ from the initial schedule's works cost. Retain dated photographs, lease references, alteration records and landlord intentions with itemised responses so negotiations can identify whether a remaining difference concerns responsibility, remedy, access assumptions or the amount properly claimed for the particular breach.
Local evidence: Tower Hamlets: All Saints Poplar appraisal, pages 6–7; Tower Hamlets: Lansbury appraisal, pages 5–7; Civil Procedure Rules: Dilapidations Protocol.
Poplar lease-end questions
Does the Lansbury appraisal establish the present Chrisp Street lease arrangement?
No. Its adopted 2008 account records historical building form and uses. Confirm current occupation and the executed documents. A shop below residential accommodation does not automatically carry repair obligations for the whole building, roof or services used by other occupiers.
Can a Poplar terrace and a Lansbury building use the same repair quantities?
Inspect the actual materials and condition and identify the obligation at each component. The appraisals describe different building forms and variation within groups. Architectural coherence does not prove equal deterioration or justify carrying a standard specification across unrelated commercial premises.
Does a wider Poplar scheme automatically supersede a unit's dilapidations?
Obtain the actual landlord proposal, decision evidence and timing, then map its effect against individual claimed works. An assumed area project is insufficient. Appropriate legal and valuation advice may be needed for repairing-covenant limits, diminution and the relevant loss assessment.
Can landscaped closes or the churchyard provide repair storage?
Do not assume that from their appearance or proximity. Establish ownership, permission, the permitted operation and protection of retained surfaces or boundaries. The cost account should describe an available method and make unresolved access assumptions explicit.
Related guidance: London dilapidations advice; lease condition records; licence to alter.
Poplar Schedule of Dilapidations Enquiry (From £1,250 plus VAT)
Content updated: October 2026.