Who Pays for a Flat Roof at the End of a Lease?

The short answer: Usually whoever the lease makes responsible for repair, which is often the tenant on a commercial lease, though not always. At the end of the term the landlord's surveyor lists what has not been kept up, and the roof is a common entry. The lease decides; your surveyor or solicitor reads it.

This is general information, not legal advice. We can record a roof's condition and price work on it. What a lease requires, who is liable and what a claim is worth are questions for your surveyor or solicitor.

What is a schedule of dilapidations?

A list, drawn up for the landlord, of the ways a building has fallen short of what the lease asked the tenant to do: repair, decorate, remove alterations, hand back in a stated condition. Each item names the defect, the clause it is said to breach and the work proposed to put it right, and it is often costed.

It is a claim, not a verdict. The tenant's own surveyor answers it line by line, items are agreed, disputed or dropped, and a settlement is usually reached on paper long before anybody climbs onto the roof with a torch or a roller.

What does a surveyor look at on a flat roof?

The things that show whether the roof has been looked after, and the things that show whether it still keeps water out. On a flat roof those are close together, which is why it so often appears on the schedule.

• The covering: splits, blisters, crazing, worn chippings or bare patches, and areas where water stands after rain.
• Upstands and edges: laps lifting where the roof meets a wall, a parapet or a kerb, and loose or missing trims.
• Outlets and gutters: blocked or broken outlets, silted gutters, and signs that water has overflowed rather than drained.
• Rooflights: cracked or crazed glazing, failed seals and kerbs whose waterproofing has parted from the frame.
• Patch repairs: layers of past fixes, mismatched materials and sealant smeared over joints, which suggest a roof managed from leak to leak.

Repair or reinstatement: what is the difference?

Broadly, repair means putting something back into working order; reinstatement means returning the building to how it was before a tenant changed it. A worn covering on an untouched roof raises the first question. A roof that gained plant, a rooflight or a terrace during the lease can raise the second, if the lease asked for alterations to be removed.

Neither word means a brand new roof by default. How far repair goes, whether a tired covering can be patched or must be renewed, and how much weight the landlord's own plans for the building carry are exactly the arguments the two surveyors have. A roofer can tell them what is physically needed; what is owed is theirs to settle.

Why does a dated condition record help both sides?

Because most disputes about a roof come down to one question nobody can answer from memory: what was it like on the first day? A record made when the lease starts, with photographs and a written description of the covering, the details and the drainage, fixes that point.

A second record when the lease ends turns the argument into a comparison. The tenant can show what was inherited rather than caused; the landlord can show what deteriorated during the term. Either way, the evidence was gathered before anyone had a reason to see it differently, which is what makes it persuasive. A planned maintenance programme during the lease adds the dated visits in between.

Where does a roofer fit, and where do we stop?

A roofer supplies evidence and a scope, and nothing beyond them. We can attend, inspect and photograph the roof, and produce a written condition survey that records what is there, defect by defect. That survey is chargeable, and we agree its fee with you before the visit; it then counts towards the works if they proceed. Separately, and at no charge, we can put a written figure on the work a schedule lists, or on the repairs a tenant chooses to carry out before handing back.

On a larger building, where the real question is whether the covering should be repaired, re-covered or replaced, a commercial roof assessment sets out the route and the reasons. We stay out of the lease itself: we never interpret it, decide who is liable, value the claim or negotiate with the other side. Those belong to the surveyors and solicitors acting for each party, and our documents are written to be handed to them.