A schedule of condition benchmarks the state of a building at a particular point in time.

If you are about to take on a new lease as a tenant, a schedule of condition will protect you from any unwarranted end-of-lease claim by the landlord that the property has deteriorated since you took it on and that you should therefore pay for making good.

A schedule of condition can also be useful in highlighting repairs you want the landlord to sort out before you sign the lease, and in helping re-negotiate lease terms including rent free periods and the precise wording around repairing clauses.

If you are a landlord, a schedule of condition means you can assess at expiry of the lease whether a tenant is returning the property in the same state they took it on. If the property has deteriorated, you have the evidence you need to back up demands for the tenant to pay for repairs.

A schedule of dilapidations lists repairs the landlord requires a tenant to make (or pay for). You would normally make a dilapidation claim in the last 12 months of a lease, to make sure the tenant returns the property to the required condition by the time the lease ends. You can however make a claim at any time during the course of a lease, and you can still make a claim for costs even after the lease expires.