Commercial leases usually require you to return the premises in good condition, fair wear and tear excepted, and carpet is where that clause most often bites. The problem for a tenant is that the bill arrives at exactly the wrong moment: you are moving, you have no leverage left, and the landlord is quoting a reinstatement figure you have no way to check. The tenants who avoid this deal with it in year one and again a year before exit, not at handover.
This describes general commercial practice. It is not legal advice, and your lease and your attorney govern. Read the actual clause rather than assuming what it says.
What the clause typically requires
Wording varies enormously, which is the first thing worth knowing. Some leases require the premises returned in the condition they were received. Some require good and tenantable repair. Some carry a schedule of condition attached. Some name specific obligations for floor coverings.
Almost all of them except fair wear and tear, and almost all disputes are about where that line sits.
Fair wear and tear is deterioration from ordinary reasonable use over the term. A traffic lane that has dulled over a five-year lease is what happens when people walk to their desks, which is what the premises were let for.
Damage or disrepair is beyond that: burns, tears, large untreated stains, or a floor genuinely degraded past ordinary use.
The useful test is soil versus wear, and it is the same distinction that decides whether cleaning will help at all, see how to tell soil from wear. Rub the carpet with a damp white cloth: if it greys, that is soil and it cleans out; if the cloth stays clean and the floor still looks dark, the fibre is abraded, and abrasion over five years of ordinary occupation is a strong wear-and-tear argument.
The two moments that decide the outcome
Year one: the schedule of condition
This is the one that matters and almost nobody does it properly.
At the start of the lease, photograph the floors. Dated, every room, the traffic lanes specifically, the edges, and any existing marks. Note the carpet's age if you can find out, because it limits what can ever be claimed against you.
Without that record you are arguing at exit about a floor nobody documented, against a landlord who has a quote. The burden of establishing the change is on whoever claims it, but in practice a tenant with photographs is in a completely different position to a tenant with a memory, see how to document floor condition properly.
If a schedule of condition is attached to your lease, check what it actually says about the floors rather than assuming it protects you.
A year before exit: the assessment
Get the floor assessed roughly twelve months out, not at handover.
That gives you time to know whether you are looking at a cleaning job or a genuine dilapidations exposure, to fix things that are cheap to fix early, and to negotiate from a position of information rather than surprise. A tenant who arrives at exit discussions already knowing which parts of the floor are soil and which are wear is negotiating. A tenant who does not is receiving a number.
Where landlords overreach, and where tenants do
Age and remaining life. The most common overreach. If the carpet was already eight years into a ten-year life when you left, a landlord who has to replace it has lost two years of it, not a new floor. Betterment is a real principle: a landlord should not end up with a better asset than they would have had.
Cleaning versus replacing. A landlord quoting replacement for a floor that would clean up is claiming more than the loss. This is exactly where an honest condition assessment pays for itself.
The landlord's actual intention. Worth asking. If the floor is coming out anyway for the next tenant's fit-out, a reinstatement claim looks very different. Landlords are not always willing to say, and it is worth asking through your attorney.
Where tenants overreach: claiming five years of an unmaintained call-centre floor is fair wear and tear when the lanes are destroyed and the floor was never cleaned once. Wear and tear means ordinary use, and never maintaining a floor is not the same as ordinarily using it.
The tenants who never have this problem
They maintained the floor, and the reason it works is not that the landlord is impressed.
Cleaning removes the grit that abrades fibre, and abrasion is what produces the dark, dead traffic lanes that dilapidations claims are built on, see why grit is what wears carpet out. A floor cleaned on a 3 to 6 month cycle for five years arrives at exit soiled but sound. A floor never cleaned arrives abraded, and abrasion is the thing you cannot argue your way out of because it is physically there, see how often offices should clean carpets.
That reframes the annual cleaning line. It is not only deferring your landlord's capital cost, it is limiting your own exit liability, which is a second argument to put in front of finance, see making the case to finance. Entrance matting belongs in the same conversation for the same reason, see how to specify entrance matting.
At exit
Clean the floor before handover, and do it after the fit-out strip and any making good, not before, or you will pay twice, see why cleaning goes last.
Photograph it afterwards, dated, same angles as your year-one record. Then a clean floor is the baseline the conversation starts from, rather than a soiled one the landlord gets to characterise.
What we can and cannot do
We clean, and we assess honestly, telling you which of the appearance is soil that comes out and which is wear that does not. That is frequently the exact fact a dilapidations conversation turns on, and it is genuinely useful to have before the negotiation rather than during it.
We are not dilapidations surveyors, we do not price reinstatement, and we do not act as expert witnesses. For a substantial claim you want a surveyor and an attorney, and we will say so, see honesty about what cleaning cannot do.
Common questions
Does a commercial lease require carpet to be replaced at exit?
Usually the clause requires the premises returned in good condition, fair wear and tear excepted, rather than naming replacement. Whether carpet falls on the wear side depends on its condition and its age. A traffic lane that dulled over a five-year lease is ordinary use of premises let for people to walk to desks. A floor genuinely degraded beyond ordinary use is different. Read your actual clause; this is general practice, not legal advice.
When should a tenant deal with carpet dilapidations?
Twice: in year one and about twelve months before exit. In year one, photograph the floors dated, room by room, including traffic lanes and existing marks, and note the carpet's age. A year before exit, get it assessed so you know whether you face a cleaning job or a real exposure. A tenant who arrives at exit already knowing what is soil and what is wear is negotiating; one who does not is receiving a number.
Can a landlord claim the cost of a whole new carpet?
Often they claim it, and age limits what is reasonable. If the carpet was eight years into a ten-year life when you left, the landlord has lost two years of it rather than a new floor, and betterment is a real principle: a landlord should not end up with a better asset than they would have had. A landlord quoting replacement for a floor that would clean up is also claiming more than the loss.
Does maintaining office carpet reduce dilapidations liability?
It is the most effective thing you can do. Cleaning removes the grit that abrades fibre, and abrasion is what creates the dark, dead traffic lanes dilapidations claims are built on. A floor cleaned on a 3 to 6 month cycle arrives at exit soiled but sound, which cleans up. A floor never cleaned arrives abraded, and abrasion is physically there and cannot be argued away.
For an honest condition assessment ahead of a lease exit, contact our commercial team or see commercial carpet cleaning.