Schedule of dilapidations - Landlord going for our deposit! Advice needed

[Gyumri]

Thats not true. All correspondence can be used as evidence in a case.

WP correspondence can only be seen by a judge in limited circumstances. To understand what they are it is necessary to look at some of the authorities on this topic.

It does not only relate to offers but to negotiations and admissions leading up to an agreement which as Lord Hoffman said are often "drenched in subjectivity".

So the OP should keep the correspondence open but only mark it "WP save as to costs" if an offer is being made which the OP does not want the court to see until the conclusion of a case.
It may be useful for the OP to make a CPR part 36 offer to indicate that proceedings are being contemplated.

 

[Solvelaw]

The points about disrepair / no evidence of condition is all red herring - is that your obligation to repair starts on the lease, so if the building is in disrepair when you took the lease, the obligation goes on you upon signing. This of course is against the common misconception that disrepairs which were already there are not the new tenants responsibility in the absence of a schedule of a condition. Secondly improvements are excluded but there is a very little used procedure for you to claim them but it hardly ever succeed due to the wording in the lease. The only way you can counter is get your own surveyor and prepare a counter-schedule to respond to the schedule of dilapidations. You are not required to repair but renew but that has caveats. Good luck with this.