Formal Adoption of Pre-action Protocol for Dilapidations - Update

In our Law-Now of 20 October 2011 ( click here) we reported that the Civil Rules Committee had approved the Property Litigation Association's Pre-action Protocol for Terminal Dilapidations claims for formal adoption into the Civil Procedure Rules. Whilst the Protocol came into force on 1 January 2012, it has only recently been formally incorporated into the Civil Procedure Rules by virtue of the latest update to the Rules effective as of 6 April 2012. You will shortly be able to access a copy of the Protocol on the Ministry of Justice's website (click here).

As previously reported, the final Protocol remains largely the same as the Protocol which has been informally in use by many surveyors for some time. However, one substantive change is that the tenant's surveyor will now be required to endorse his response to the landlord's claim and certify that in his opinion the works he has suggested are those reasonably required to put the premises into the condition