Unless otherwise stated, a tenant is contract bound to restore the premises rented to its original condition with fair wear and tear excepted before returning it back to the landlord when the lease expires.
This literally means you have to dismantle everything you have put up and return the premises rented on the same condition as you have taken over from the landlord from the beginning of the tenancy. It is always prudent for any tenant to take photos of the original condition of a premises and have them attached to the contract to prevent future disputes, but most tenants don't.
It is also prudent that in the course of tenancy, tenants should put aside money in a sinking fund to be called up when the lease expires. Sometimes the restoration cost can turn out to be very costly, and there are many cases that ex-tenants were taken to court for failure to comply. Another way of budgeting for your reinstatement works is to work the costs into the rental way in advance. Assuming you rented a 10,000sq ft premises at $4/- per sq ft for a 3 years tenancy, and projected reinstatement cost is $100,000, your real rental is $4.30 per sq ft. That 30cts psf/mth needs to be budgeted for and put aside.
Particularly for industrial tenants, manufacturing and assembly lines involved heavy support services like High Tension Cable Lines, Compressed Air Pipes, Air-Con Systems, Storage Systems, and so forth. These support services sometimes require very specialised people to have them removed in the first place.
It is quite common for offices and shopping malls where there is a building management team who prepares a list of conditions for tenants as a guide for tenants to be aware of before commencing reinstatement works. However, where a building with fewer tenants, such arrangements becomes ad-hoc and subjective.
For dismantling, moving & disposal of heavy equipment & structures,
Email : dismantle4u@yahoo.com.sg
