The purpose of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927 Act is to present a landlord with reasonable compensation for the tenant’s breach of covenant.  In terms of dilapidations on a commercial property, the Landlord and Tenant Act1927 has clear provisions relating to the condition of a commercial property during the term of the tenancy or when the lease ends.

S.18 Landlord and Tenant Act 1927 imposes a limit on the amount of damages that a landlord could obtain for breach by a tenant of the covenant to repair. Indeed, S.18 of Landlord and Tenant Act 1927 states that ‘…Damages for a breach of a covenant or agreement to keep or put premises in repair during the currency of a lease, or to leave or put premises in repair at the termination of a lease…shall in no case exceed the amount (if any) by which the value of the reversion…’.

Furthermore, the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927 considers the fact that a landlord cannot receive or recover damages for dilapidations if he was to make structural alterations and had intentions at the time of ending the lease to pull down the premises anyway. In many ways, this demonstrates how the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927 acts as a vehicle for tenants to defend dilapidation claims.