Landlord Approval of a Tenant Fit-Out

What the application should contain

Before any assessment begins, the application needs to be complete. An incomplete application generates rounds of queries, delays the tenant fit-out programme, and increases the fees the tenant pays.

• General arrangement drawings showing the proposed layout, at a scale that can be assessed.
• A specification covering finishes, partitioning systems, joinery, and services.
• Mechanical and electrical drawings where the works alter cooling, ventilation, small power, or lighting.
• Details of any works affecting sprinkler coverage, fire detection, or compartmentation.
• Structural details and calculations where loading is altered or openings are formed.
• The identity of the contractor and the proposed contract route.
• A programme, including working hours and access requirements.
• Confirmation of insurance cover and the arrangements under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations.

The technical review

The assessment is carried out by Clayton Ayling, a chartered building surveyor regulated by RICS, and covers the matters that affect the building rather than the commercial terms.

• Effect on landlord plant and primary services, including whether terminal units, risers, and distribution remain accessible for maintenance.
• Supplementary cooling — condenser locations, condensate drainage, acoustic effect on other occupiers, and whether the roof or riser capacity supports it.
• Acoustic separation where enclosed rooms adjoin the demise of another occupier.
• Effect on the common parts during delivery, including access routes, lift use, and waste removal.
• Whether the specification is deliverable within the demise as it exists, rather than as the drawings assume.
• Whether the works alter anything that would need to be handed back in a defined state at lease end.

Setting the conditions

Consent is given subject to conditions governing how the works are carried out. These protect the building and the other occupiers during the fit-out.

1. Working hours, and which operations must be carried out outside normal occupancy.
2. Access routes, lift use, loading arrangements, and protection to common parts.
3. Insurance requirements for the tenant and the contractor.
4. Notification and isolation procedures for work affecting fire alarm and sprinkler systems.
5. Standards of workmanship and materials, and compliance with the base-build specification where relevant.
6. Statutory approvals to be obtained before the relevant works begin.
7. Documents to be provided on completion — as-built drawings, commissioning records, warranties, and the health and safety file.

Conditions should be capable of being met. A condition the fit-out programme cannot deliver will be breached rather than followed, and it weakens the position on the conditions that matter.

Monitoring the works

On anything beyond minor works, monitoring during the fit-out is worth the cost. It confirms the works follow the approved drawings, identifies departures at a point where they can still be corrected, and produces a contemporaneous record.

Departures from approved drawings are common and are usually not deliberate. Layouts change as the tenant requirement develops, services are rerouted around site conditions, and specifications are substituted. Each departure sits outside the consent unless the licence is varied, and each one becomes an argument at lease end.

Monitoring visits also confirm that conditions are being observed — protection to common parts, isolation procedures for fire systems, and access arrangements. At completion, the record of what was actually built becomes part of the evidence supporting any future reinstatement claim.

Protecting the reinstatement position

The reinstatement clause is the part of the licence with lasting financial effect. Drafting it precisely at the point of consent is what makes it enforceable later.

• Define the permitted works by reference to drawings the works will actually be built to, not to an outline layout.
• State clearly whether reinstatement is automatic or arises only on notice, and set a notice period that is workable for both parties.
• Identify the standard the premises must be returned to, rather than referring loosely to the original condition.
• Record the condition of the demise before the works begin, through a schedule of condition. This protects both parties.
• Require as-built drawings on completion, and keep them with the licence.
• Vary the licence where the design changes materially during the works.

Where the intention is to refurbish the floor between lettings in any event, that should inform the approach. Works the landlord was always going to carry out are superseded and are not recoverable at expiry. The principle is set out in supersession.

Acting reasonably and within a reasonable time

Where the lease qualifies consent so that it is not to be unreasonably withheld, the landlord carries obligations of its own. Consent must not be withheld unreasonably, a decision must be reached within a reasonable time, and reasons should be given where consent is refused.

Delay is a practical risk as well as a legal one. A tenant fit-out programme is normally committed against a rent-free period, and a slow consent process pushes the occupier into paying rent on space that cannot be used. That damages the relationship at the start of a term that may run for ten years or more.

A prompt, structured assessment with clear conditions serves the landlord better than a slow one. It protects the building, produces an enforceable licence, and keeps the letting on programme.