Dilapidation is a term meaning a destructive event to a building, but more particularly used in the plural in English law for.1  the waste committed by the incumbent of an ecclesiastical living.n a leading case (Ross v. Adcock, 1868, L.R. 3 C.P. 657) it was said that the court was acquainted with no precedent or decision extending the liability of the executors of a deceased incumbent to any species of waste beyond dilapidation of the house, chancel or other buildings or fences of the benefice.