Anna Jamroz v Mohammed Javid Tariq Ali

An application for a rent repayment order is made when it is sent to the First-tier Tribunal by email. This remains so where the email is sent outside office hours, provided it is sent within the statutory period. The relevant licensing offence must have been committed within the period specified by section 41(2) of the Housing and Planning Act 2016. Where the First-tier Tribunal wrongly treats an application as out of time, the Upper Tribunal may give effect to alternative findings made by the First-tier Tribunal on the offence and the amount of the order.

The tenant appealed against the First-tier Tribunal’s decision that it lacked jurisdiction to make a rent repayment order because her application was out of time. The landlord had allegedly committed a selective-licensing offence, with the last possible offending date being 28 February 2023. The tenant emailed her application at 11:15 pm on 27 February 2024. After the First-tier Tribunal’s decision, the Upper Tribunal decided in Gorgievski v Griffiths and others, [2025] UKUT 161 (LC), that an application is made when sent by email, including outside office hours. The issue was whether that decision required the appeal to succeed.

1. Appeal allowed. The First-tier Tribunal had jurisdiction because the tenant’s application was made when the email was sent at 11:15 pm on 27 February 2024. The application was therefore within the period ending on 27 February 2024.
2. The decision in Gorgievski v Griffiths and others, [2025] UKUT 161 (LC), was binding on the First-tier Tribunal and made the outcome inevitable. An application is made by sending it to the Tribunal by email, even if it is sent outside office hours.
3. The Tribunal did not determine the appellant’s submissions challenging Moh v Rimal Properties Ltd, [2024] UKUT 324 (LC). Those arguments were unnecessary to the ground on which permission to appeal had been granted and were left for another case.
4. The First-tier Tribunal had made alternative findings that the landlord committed the relevant licensing offence and that the rent repayment order should be £2,790. Those findings took effect. The landlord was ordered to repay that sum and the First-tier Tribunal fees of £320 within 28 days.

• Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber): Appeal allowed. The First-tier Tribunal had jurisdiction and its alternative findings took effect.
• First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber): Held that the application was out of time and that it lacked jurisdiction, while making alternative findings on the offence and the amount of the rent repayment order.