Services for landlords and tenants

We are able to assist landlords and tenants in the following areas:

Condition surveys at commencement of a lease

When entering into a lease both parties need to undertake a condition survey. It’s your insurance policy. If, down the track, you end up in a lease dispute, you will want to refer back to the condition survey to support your claim.

If you are using the Auckland District Law Society Standard Lease Agreement then you are required, under the terms of this lease, to get a schedule of condition at the commencement of the lease.

Stock condition surveys

If you own, or are a tenant, of multiple properties then a stock condition survey will enable you to understand the condition of your portfolio of properties.

Schedules of reinstatement

This is a schedule documenting the state of disrepair of a property and the required remedial action, where there is a legal liability for the condition of disrepair on either landlord or tenant. It is often referred to as a dilapidation report. There are two types:

• A terminal schedule is a reinstatement schedule served no more than 6 months before the expiry of the lease, which sets out work to be done to the premises at the expiry (or at earlier termination) of a lease.
• An interim schedule is a reinstatement schedule detailing items of disrepair arising from the tenant’s failure to comply with a repair covenant identified by the landlord during the term of the lease and which the landlord requires to be remedied during the term of the lease.

This helps you:

• to interpret repair or reinstatement liabilities to minimise your financial exposure prior to termination and/or to ensure the condition of the asset is not deteriorating, and to minimise future repairs
• to agree with the other party(ies) the appropriate scope and cost of those liabilities
• with lease renewal negotiations
• to resolve lease disputes.

Lease dispute negotiations

If you’re involved in a lease dispute, we can act on your behalf by undertaking a schedule of reinstatement and comparing it to the original (and any subsequent) condition surveys and the terms of a lease in order to identify which party is responsible for which repairs. We then negotiate on your behalf with the other party’s representative building surveyor.