Signs You Need a Make Good Assessment
Seven signs a make good assessment is worth booking before you get quotes, from a vague lease clause to a building old enough to need an asbestos check.
A make good assessment is simply having someone, a contractor, a building consultant, or you working carefully through your own lease and premises, work out what your make good actually requires before you get quotes. It is not a legal requirement. Whether your own lease requires one is a question for your clause: some leases set a valuation mechanism, such as a jointly appointed quantity surveyor. The seven signs below are the practical situations where it is worth doing before you start pricing the job, not a legal test.
Quick check
| If this is true for you | Why it is a sign |
|---|---|
| Your lease ends within the next year | Scoping, quoting and doing the work all take real time |
| Your make good clause has no clear standard | You need it interpreted before a dispute forces the question |
| You have no entry condition or dilapidation report | There is nothing to prove what was already there |
| You have added partitions, cabling or branding | Everything you added is a candidate for removal |
| Your building is older | It can involve asbestos, which changes the process |
| You are subletting, or occupants have changed | Your head lease obligations do not move with the occupant |
| You are weighing a cash settlement, or expect a dispute | You need an independent scope and cost before you negotiate |
Your lease end date is within the next year
If your lease end date is on the calendar at all, even a year out, that is reason enough to get someone looking at the space now. Scoping the work, getting quotes, booking a contractor and completing the job all take real time, and an asbestos check or a disputed clause can add weeks on top of that. Our end of lease timeline guide sets out how those steps stack up, so you can work backward from your actual handback date.
Plan your end of lease timeline
Your make good clause has no clear standard
Some make good clauses spell out exactly what 'original condition' or 'base building' means. Others just say something like 'good order and condition' and leave it there, without saying whose judgment that is measured against. If you cannot read your own clause and explain to a stranger exactly what you are required to remove or repair, that gap is worth resolving with an assessment before your landlord's inspector resolves it for you.
Read the make good clause guide · Negotiating a make good clause
You have no entry condition or dilapidation report
Without a dated record of what the space looked like when you moved in, there is nothing to separate pre-existing wear from anything that happened during your tenancy. An assessment now cannot recreate that record, but it can flag the gap early enough to negotiate around it, instead of finding out during the final walkthrough.
Dilapidation report cost and coverage
You have added to the space since you moved in
Partitions, cabling, branding, a kitchenette: anything you installed on top of the base building is a candidate for removal, depending on what your specific clause requires. The more you have changed, the more an assessment is worth doing, because it turns a vague obligation into an itemised list you can actually price.
Cat A vs Cat B fit-out and make good · See the full make good checklist
Your building is older
Older buildings can involve asbestos in the ceiling or wall sheeting, and that changes both the process and the timeline for your make good. An assessment is where this gets flagged, before a contractor starts pulling down a ceiling that turns out to need a licensed removalist. Our asbestos guide covers which thresholds actually require a licence.
You are subletting, or occupants have changed
If you have sublet all or part of the space, Sprintlaw's guide to subleasing makes the point plainly: your head lease obligations continue whoever is actually in occupation. An assessment against your head lease, not your sublease, is what tells you what you are actually on the hook for.
You are weighing a cash settlement, or expect a dispute
Proposing a cash settlement instead of physical works only works from a position of knowing what those physical works would actually cost. The same goes for a clause you already expect your landlord to argue over. An independent assessment gives you a defined scope and a number to negotiate from.
Cash settlement vs make good · Make good dispute resolution
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a professional to do a make good assessment, or can I do it myself?
You can start by reading your own clause and walking the space against it yourself, and the checklist and clause guides on this site help with that. A paid assessment from a contractor, quantity surveyor or building consultant is worth considering once the space is large, the changes you made are extensive, or you expect your landlord to disagree with your own reading of the clause.
How early should I get a make good assessment done?
As early as you reasonably can. Our end of lease timeline guide sets out how the scoping, quoting and works stages fit together, so you can count backward from your actual handback date instead of starting once the lease is already ending.
What happens if I skip an assessment and go straight to getting quotes?
You risk getting quotes against the wrong scope: a contractor pricing what a typical make good looks like, rather than what your specific clause actually requires. A scope built on the wrong assumptions is where a disagreement with your landlord can start, well before the final inspection.
Ready to get started?
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