What is a Scott Schedule?

The short answer

A Scott Schedule is a table — usually landscape — that sets out a dispute item by item. The claimant's case on each item (the defect, what's needed, the cost) goes in the first columns; the defendant's response and counter-figure go in the adjacent columns; and, where a court orders it, a final column is left for the judge's decision on each line. It is the document the parties argue through line by line and the judge ultimately rules on.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors describes it as “a Schedule of Dilapidations with additional columns to enable the parties to set out their respective views”, and notes the document is usually prepared by a building surveyor. The Technology and Construction Court describes it as “a table, often in landscape format, in which the Claimant's case on liability and quantum is set out item by item in the first few columns and the Defendant's response is set out in the adjacent columns”.

Where it comes from

It is named after George Alexander Scott, an Official Referee (the predecessor role to today's Technology and Construction Court judges), who devised the format for use in building disputes. The point was to take a case with dozens or hundreds of separate alleged defects and force it into one structured grid, so the parties — and the judge — could deal with each item discretely instead of arguing the whole thing at large. It has since been adapted well beyond construction: dilapidations, housing disrepair, and other multi-item disputes all use the same device.

How it works — the “travelling document”

A Scott Schedule is a travelling document. One side completes their columns first and sends it across; the other side fills in their response columns and sends it back. By the time it reaches the court it already shows, item by item, exactly what is agreed, what is disputed, and where the parties' figures diverge — which is precisely what a judge needs to make decisions efficiently. That collaborative back-and-forth is the whole purpose: it narrows the real issues before trial.

The format — what columns appear

There is no single statutory layout — the exact columns flex with the type of claim and any directions the court gives — but a typical Scott Schedule runs along these lines:

• Item / reference — a number for each discrete issue, so everyone can refer to “item 14” and mean the same thing.
• The defect / breach — what is wrong, and where (often the clause or covenant breached in a dilapidations or contract case).
• Claimant's case — the remedy required and the claimant's costed figure.
• Defendant's response — admitted or disputed, the defendant's position, and their alternative figure.
• Agreed — on some schedules, a column recording what the parties have settled between them.
• Judge / tribunal — left blank by the parties; the column the judge completes when ruling on each item.

The columns shift with the dispute. A dilapidations Scott Schedule references lease covenants and may group items by repair / redecoration / reinstatement. A housing disrepair schedule tracks the claimant's and defendant's positions and, where a single joint expert is used, carries an expert column instead of opposing party columns. A construction-defects schedule references the contract. The skeleton — item, case, response, judge — stays the same.

When you'll prepare one

• Dilapidations. At lease end, a Scott Schedule is effectively an extended schedule of dilapidations with response columns added, so the tenant can answer the landlord's quantified demand item by item. See our Dilapidations template.
• Housing disrepair. In a disrepair claim the schedule of works from your expert report becomes a Scott Schedule once the matter heads for proceedings. How that fits the wider process is covered in our guide to the Pre-Action Protocol for Housing Disrepair.
• Building & construction defects. The original use case — many alleged defects, disputed workmanship, and the question of what it costs to put right.

Who prepares it — and the surveyor's duty

The Scott Schedule is typically prepared by a building surveyor, either by agreement between the parties or because the court has directed it. Where you produce it as expert evidence it must comply with CPR Part 35: your overriding duty is to the court, not to whoever instructs you, and that has to be visible in how the schedule and any accompanying report read. Vague items, costs that won't survive challenge, or a schedule that reads as advocacy for the instructing party are the classic ways an otherwise sound case gets undermined.

Practical points that matter: keep each item discrete and numbered; make causation and the basis of each cost explicit; and produce it in clean, usable landscape form. A schedule the court can't work through draws criticism and delay.

How SurveyorSuite fits this

The Scott Schedule template produces the columnar court format directly — item-by-item rows, claimant / defendant / agreed / judge columns, an expert column for single-joint-expert instructions, a CPR Part 35 declaration, and Word export for the court bundle. It feeds from the same inspection data as the Dilapidations and Housing Disrepair templates, so the schedule isn't re-keyed. You stay the named expert — the software handles the grid and the formatting, you provide the judgement and sign off.

See the Scott Schedule template →