Triplerose Ltd, R (on the application of) v Rent Assessment Committee

Rent assessment committees may use local knowledge and professional experience when determining a fair rent. They must give adequate and intelligible reasons for the principal controversial issues and inform the parties of any new matter which may take them by surprise. A comparable may be used, including a single comparable and broad adjustments, but it must be properly evaluated. The committee must not simply adopt an unexplained comparable as the starting point and extrapolate from it. Where services, council tax or fuel costs form part of the registered rent, the committee should state clearly what has been included and, where appropriate, how it was calculated.

Triplerose Ltd, the landlord, appealed under section 11 of the Tribunals and Inquiries Act against the Rent Assessment Committee’s determination of the fair rent for a regulated tenancy. The committee had relied principally on an advertised studio-flat rent, doubled it for the rooms occupied by the tenants, deducted 55 per cent for disadvantages and then deducted 20 per cent for scarcity. It registered a rent of £97.20 per week, stating that council tax was included.

The landlord alleged errors of law concerning the comparable, procedural fairness, council tax and gas charges. The central issue was whether the committee’s reasons disclosed a lawful valuation exercise.

1. Appeal allowed to a limited extent. The committee was entitled to use local knowledge and experience, and there was no error in principle in making broad adjustments for the accommodation’s disadvantages. Nor was it inherently unlawful to use a single comparable or to double its figure if the committee was satisfied, on proper evaluation, that it was an appropriate approximation.

2. The error lay in treating the £135 comparable as the sole starting point and simply doubling it to produce £270. The reasons did not show adequate evaluation of the comparable or whether the deductions made for the subject premises applied equally to it. The result was unexplained extrapolation rather than the product of the committee’s judgment and experience. The landlord’s representative had apparently not been given an opportunity to address the comparable. On the assumed facts, that was an error of law.

3. The reasons must address substantial points and principal controversial issues. Natural justice requires notice of a new matter within the committee’s own knowledge which may take a party by surprise.

4. The registered rent properly includes sums payable for services, council tax and fuel under section 71(1) of the Rent Act. Including council tax and taking the tenants’ gas liability into account were not, in themselves, errors of law. On reconsideration, the committee should clarify the amount included for council tax, whether any gas figure was included, and whether the rent was variable.

5. The matter was remitted for reconsideration, ideally by a differently constituted committee. There was no order as to costs, including against the tenants.

The judgment describes an appeal under section 11 of the Tribunals and Inquiries Act from the Rent Assessment Committee’s determination. The decision was set aside to the limited extent identified, and the rent assessment was remitted for reconsideration.