When a commercial lease ends, the roof is often where the money is. It is the largest single building element, the most exposed to the weather, and the least visible to a tenant going about their business.
Under a full repairing and insuring (FRI) lease it is also, usually, the tenant’s responsibility. That is why roofing items are often among the most valuable entries in a terminal schedule of dilapidations.
Roofs are also where dilapidations claims are most often won or lost on evidence. A landlord who cannot show the roof’s condition at lease end, or better still its deterioration across the term, negotiates from weakness.
A tenant faced with a vague, uncosted roofing claim has every reason to resist it. This guide explains how roofing fits into the dilapidations process, what both sides need to evidence, and why the roof survey is often the most valuable document in the file.
This is general guidance, not legal advice. Every lease is different, so always take advice from a building surveyor or property solicitor on your specific case.
How the Roof Enters a Dilapidations Claim
Who is responsible for the roof depends entirely on the lease. In a single-let building on FRI terms, the tenant typically carries the repairing obligation for the whole building, roof included. In a multi-let building, tenants usually take internal repairing leases: the landlord keeps responsibility for the roof and recovers the cost from tenants through the service charge.
Where the tenant does hold the repairing covenant, the obligation is typically to keep the premises in repair. Importantly, that usually includes putting them into repair if they were already defective when the lease began, unless a schedule of condition was agreed at the start to limit the obligation.
Dilapidations claims can arise during the term (an interim schedule) or at lease end (a terminal schedule). For roofs, a terminal schedule prepared by the landlord’s building surveyor will typically list failed or life-expired coverings, defective flashings and rooflights, blocked and corroded gutters, unrepaired storm damage, and the consequences of neglected maintenance.
The process that follows is set by the Dilapidations Pre-Action Protocol. The landlord should send the schedule within a reasonable time, generally within 56 days after the tenancy ends, together with a quantified demand setting out the sum claimed. The surveyor must endorse the schedule, confirming that the works are reasonably required, that the landlord’s intentions for the property have been taken into account, and that any costings are reasonable. The tenant should then respond, usually within 56 days, item by item.
A statutory cap also applies. Under section 18(1) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927, damages for breach of a repairing covenant cannot exceed the reduction in the value of the landlord’s interest caused by the disrepair. Nothing is recoverable for works that would be made pointless by the landlord’s plans to demolish or substantially alter the building. That is why claims for roof works the landlord never intends to carry out rarely succeed in full.
The Evidence That Decides Roofing Claims
Roofing dilapidations turn on three questions. What condition is the roof in? What condition should it be in under the lease? And what will it genuinely cost to bridge the gap? Every one of those is an evidence question.
For landlords, the strongest position is built long before lease end: a photographic condition record at the start of the lease, periodic condition surveys during the term (many leases give the landlord a right to inspect for exactly this purpose), and a professional roof survey in the final 12 to 18 months. A drone roof survey is particularly useful here. It gives dated, high-resolution imagery of the entire roof, captured without access equipment or disruption to the tenant, and shows the other side exactly what the surveyor saw.
For tenants, the same evidence works in reverse. A tenant who has maintained the roof and can produce gutter clearance records, repair invoices and inspection reports is well placed to challenge an inflated claim. Warranty documentation matters too: if the roof was renewed during the term, the manufacturer warranty and its maintenance conditions are part of the record (our guide to flat roof warranties explains what those documents cover). And a tenant approaching lease end with known roof liabilities often does better commissioning their own survey and pricing the works than waiting for the landlord’s figure.
Repair, Renewal, and the Costing Battle
The most contested roofing question in dilapidations is repair versus replacement. A covenant to repair does not usually oblige a tenant to hand back a new roof. But where a covering has deteriorated so far that patch repair is no longer a realistic remedy, replacement can be the only practical way of carrying out the repair, and the claim is costed on that basis.
The technical evidence decides it. Core samples showing saturated insulation, moisture mapping, and the spread of defects across the roof area distinguish a repairable roof from a life-expired one far more persuasively than descriptions do. Where only localised areas have failed, for example, targeted repairs or a gutter lining system on corroded gutters may be the proportionate answer rather than a full renewal.
Replacement brings a second argument: improvement. When a roof is renewed, Building Regulations will usually require the insulation to be brought up to current standards, and a modern system may perform better than the one it replaces. Whether the tenant should pay for that upgrade, or only for the equivalent of repair, is a frequent point of dispute, so the costing should separate the two clearly.
This is where costings from a specialist roofing contractor carry real weight. Generic price-book rates are easy to challenge. A detailed, itemised quotation for the actual roof, covering repairs and maintenance where repair is the honest answer, or a specified replacement through our flat roofing service where it is not, gives the surveyor a defensible figure and anchors the negotiation in fact. We prepare these costed assessments for building surveyors, property managers, commercial landlords and owners of industrial sites and warehouses across London and the South East.
Practical Timeline for Landlords
In the last 12 to 18 months of the term, review the lease’s repair covenant and any schedule of condition, and commission a roof condition survey. If you want the tenant to do the works themselves, serve a schedule early enough for them to act before the lease ends. Decide honestly what you intend to do with the building, because your intentions shape what loss you can recover.
At lease end, record the roof’s condition immediately on handback, before weather and time muddy the picture. If you served a schedule before the lease ended, the Protocol expects you to confirm at termination that it still stands or send an updated one. Whichever side of the table you sit on, instruct advisers early: a building surveyor for the claim, and a roofing specialist for the technical condition and cost evidence behind it.
Landlords with lease events across a portfolio can go further and make roof condition monitoring routine. A drone survey of each building every few years builds a rolling, dated evidence base that serves dilapidations, insurance and planned maintenance at the same time. The cost is modest, and the value at the next lease end can be considerable.
Lease end approaching? Book a dilapidations roof survey. Call 020 8657 0734
