Legal advice: Prepare to repair

If you are a tenant whose lease is coming to an end you are fairly certain to receive a notice from your landlord a few months before the lease expires asking you to put the premises into a good state of repair. This is normally accompanied by what is called a schedule of dilapidations - a detailed description of the present condition of each part of your pub and the work required to put the premises into good condition. There should also be an estimate of the cost of the work.

When you pick yourself up off the floor after reading this estimate, you may wonder what you should do. Your best move will be to instruct a specialist surveyor. Also, keep your solicitor in the picture - you may need to involve him at a later stage.

The surveyor will inspect your premises and compare them with the description in the schedule. Each item will be accepted, amended or rejected. Then the overall legal position will need to be addressed as follows:

Was the repairing covenant in the lease qualified, ie modified to reduce your responsibilities? A "schedule of condition", nowadays often a photographic or video record, is sometimes attached to the lease at the start of the tenancy.

• Are the items listed solely your responsibility or are some down to the landlord?
• Is the landlord asking for more than he is entitled to, ie wanting you to give him back a better building than he leased to you?
• Is the landlord going to knock the premises down once you leave, thus making the condition irrelevant?
• Is there a new tenant waiting to take the premises immediately at a full rent, so the landlord will suffer no loss?

Many tenants fail to realise that when a lease says that the tenant must keep the premises in repair, that does not mean "in their original state of repair" but in the best state or condition.

"Keep in repair" means "put into a good state and condition and then keep in that condition". For that reason it is wise to record the condition at the start of the term and only agree to keep the premises in no better state.

If the landlord reckons the repairs will cost £25,000, while your solicitor calculates the justifiable cost at no more than £8,000, you can dispute the landlord's claim and pay into court £8,000. The advantage of this is that if there is litigation and the figure finally decided upon is close to £8,000 then the landlord may be obliged to pay the costs of the action.

Take some specialist advice early on. It will serve you well in the long run.