Which stage is your lease at?
This free checker runs in your browser. Enter only the dates you know; lease documents and dates are not submitted by the calculator. The enquiry link carries your result category, without the dates.
How the dates work
The terminal Protocol generally allows 56 days after termination for the schedule and Quantified Demand. The usual response period is 56 days after the landlord sends the Quantified Demand. Reasonableness depends on the circumstances.
The Protocol also expects each document to be endorsed. The schedule should be endorsed by the landlord, or by the landlord’s surveyor where a surveyor prepared it, confirming that the works are reasonably required, that the landlord’s intentions were considered and that the costings are reasonable (paragraphs 3.5 and 3.6). The tenant’s Response should be endorsed in the same way by the tenant or the tenant’s surveyor (paragraphs 5.4 and 5.5). Whether the documents you hold carry that endorsement is a point to check, not a finding this tool makes.
The 1938 Act screen checks a lease granted for at least seven years and at least three years left when the repair notice is served. If the Act applies, the tenant may serve a counter-notice within 28 days. Once a valid counter-notice is served, the landlord cannot take proceedings for forfeiture or for damages for that breach without the leave of the court. Meeting the dates alone does not establish applicability. The Act’s definition of a lease excludes an agricultural holding to which the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 applies and a farm business tenancy under the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995.
Why a schedule is not the final liability figure
Section 18(1) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927 limits damages for breach of a repairing covenant by reference to loss in the value of the landlord’s reversion. Its redevelopment provision can exclude repair damages where the relevant planned works would make those repairs valueless. This is not a blanket cap on every item in a dilapidations claim; lease obligations, evidence and intentions need review.
A schedule of condition records condition at a fixed date. Its effect on your repairing obligations depends on how it is incorporated into the lease. Read the dilapidations costs and liability guide for the distinction between a claim, works and professional fees.
Sources checked 11 September 2026: Justice UK Dilapidations Protocol, paragraphs 3–5; Leasehold Property (Repairs) Act 1938, section 1 and section 7; Landlord and Tenant Act 1927, section 18.
Discuss your dilapidations instruction
Tell us the property address, your role, the lease stage and any stated deadline. Savas Bulduk BSc (Hons) MRICS, Director & Chartered Building Surveyor leads our commercial service.
Prefer to talk it through first? Call 020 7101 4590.