Adoption Of Pre-Action Protocol For Dilapidations Claims

Last week the Civil Procedure Rules Committee approved the Property Litigation Association's Pre-Action Protocol for Terminal Dilapidations Claims for formal adoption into the Civil Procedure Rules.  It will join the small number of existing pre-action protocols and is likely to come into force as of 1 January 2012 although formal confirmation of this date is yet to be received.
 
The effect of the adoption of the Protocol is that, whilst no party can be forced to follow its provisions in their pre-action conduct, in the event that they do not do so, the Court will examine the reasons behind the failure. Unless there is a good reason for doing so, it will be within the Court's discretion to make an adverse costs order against the guilty party whether or not that party is the successful party in the claim. It is not anticipated that slight deviations from the letter of the Protocol will result in such adverse orders, but any flagrant disregard of the Protocol is likely