Upper Tribunal: Lands Chamber judgments, 2023

Where a building is controlled or managed by a listed public-sector body, paragraph 2 of Schedule 14 to the Housing Act 2004 excludes the building, rather than…

A person served with an improvement notice commits an offence only if the specified remedial action was not completed within the notice period and the person…

Under the Law of Property Act 1925, jurisdiction to discharge or modify a restrictive covenant does not require the Tribunal to grant relief. Under ground (a)…

A banning order may be made on the basis of a conviction which has become spent. The words “has been convicted” in sections 15 and 16 of the Housing and…

A tribunal may use an email address supplied by a party for service, including where the address appears in a recently expired tenancy agreement and emails…

A contractual term will be implied only where it is necessary, either to give the agreement business efficacy or because it is so obvious that it goes without…

A rent repayment order under section 40 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016 may be made only against the applicant tenant’s immediate landlord. A superior…

Compensation for injury caused by flood-defence works depends on proof of causation, not proof of negligence. Where a claimant alleges that works have damaged…

A tribunal considering dispensation from statutory consultation requirements may impose a costs condition only where the condition is appropriate in its nature…

Under section 84 of the Law of Property Act 1925, a restrictive covenant may be modified where it impedes a reasonable use and secures no practical benefits of…

On an appeal against civil penalties for housing offences, the First-tier Tribunal must give special regard to the local authority’s enforcement policy but…

Under section 84 of the Law of Property Act 1925, a covenant which prevents a reasonable proposed use may be modified where it secures no practical benefits of…

Under Law of Property Act 1925 section 84, satisfaction of a statutory ground gives the Tribunal jurisdiction but does not require it to modify a restrictive…

A tribunal considering the consequences of non-compliance with directions should generally use the Denton framework. It must assess the seriousness of the…

Section 27A(6) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 does not make the tribunal the primary decision-maker for discretionary management decisions which the lease…

A rent repayment order under section 40(2) of the Housing and Planning Act 2016 may be made only against the tenant’s immediate landlord. A superior landlord…

A rent repayment order is limited to rent actually paid by the applicant tenant during the relevant period. Joint and several liability for the whole rent does…

A tenant’s payment of a service charge does not alone amount to an agreement or admission for the purposes of Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, section 27A. A…

Compensation for injurious affection is assessed by comparing the value of retained land immediately before and after severance, at the valuation date. The…

For the purposes of a statutory costs regime, estoppel may prevent a party from denying a fact which is an essential condition of the court’s existing…

An order under section 20C is not a routine consequence of leaseholders achieving some success in service-charge proceedings. The tribunal must decide what is…

Compensation under Part I of the Land Compensation Act 1973 is confined to depreciation caused by specified physical factors arising from the use of public…

Where a conveyance states that land is more particularly delineated on a plan, a clear plan will normally prevail over an unclear verbal description. That is…

A dismissal of a landlord’s earlier claim does not extinguish a leaseholder’s liability for sums already paid and not in issue in that claim. A service charge…

A term will be implied into a deed only where necessary to make the arrangement work. A court will not imply a maintenance obligation merely because it would…

The reasonableness of a service-charge cost is a fact-sensitive question. It is not governed by an inflexible rule that the cause of the expenditure is…

A service charge for insurance remains subject to the statutory reasonableness provisions where a tenant-controlled management company procures the insurance…

Case management directions in service-charge proceedings must enable a fair and just determination. A tribunal should consider an issue arising from documents…

Service charges may include the cost of services agreed or understood to be chargeable when an assured tenancy began. A landlord may add a genuinely new…

Where material facts are disputed, a tribunal will rarely be able to determine the dispute fairly on written evidence alone. This is particularly so where the…

Under section 84 of the Law of Property Act 1925, a restriction may be modified where it impedes a reasonable use and provides no practical benefit of…

For an appeal against a civil penalty, time does not begin to run until the final penalty notice has been given to the person concerned. Posting the notice to…

Under section 84 of the Law of Property Act 1925, an applicant must establish a jurisdictional ground before the Tribunal may exercise its discretionary power…

Where parties settle a reference but leave costs unresolved, the Tribunal should not ordinarily make no order for costs. It should decide whether a fair and…

Under section 84 of the Law of Property Act 1925, satisfying a statutory ground for modification of a restrictive covenant does not remove the Tribunal’s…

On an application to dispense with consultation for qualifying works, the decisive question is whether leaseholders suffer relevant prejudice: prejudice caused…

Where a lease gives a landlord power to alter service-charge apportionment, Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 section 27A(6) does not remove that decision-making…

A boundary may be entered as a determined boundary only where the available evidence establishes its exact line with sufficient precision for recording on the…

Compensation for disturbance following compulsory acquisition must reflect the claimant’s actual loss, subject to causation, remoteness and mitigation. A…

A charge’s status as a variable service charge is determined primarily from the tenancy agreement, including the nature of the charge and the parties’…

A forged company signature does not necessarily make a transaction incapable of binding the company. The doctrine of ostensible authority may operate where the…

For an estimated service charge, the amount payable must be reasonable. A landlord’s chosen outcome must be reasonable, but it need not be the cheapest…

On a pitch-fee review under the Mobile Homes Act 1983, the statutory presumption of an increase in line with the retail prices index is a strong steer, not an…

A management order must be construed as a whole and in its statutory and factual setting. A provision allowing a tribunal-appointed manager to recover…

An appeal to the First-tier Tribunal against a housing civil penalty is a rehearing. The Tribunal may increase or reduce the penalty on the basis of facts…

When fixing a rent repayment order, a tribunal must take the landlord’s financial circumstances into account under Housing and Planning Act 2016, section…

An order for costs under rule 13(1)(b) of the Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) (Property Chamber) Rules 2013 may be made only against a person who has…

In civil penalty proceedings for an unlicensed HMO, proof of the underlying offence is required to the criminal standard. An appellate tribunal may set aside a…

When deciding whether to extend time for an appeal, a tribunal must engage with the specific explanation for delay. It must decide whether the explanation is…

In the First-tier Tribunal’s service-charge jurisdiction, rule 13(1)(b) requires an objective assessment of whether a person acted unreasonably in bringing…

A banning order under Part 2 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016 is discretionary. The First-tier Tribunal must consider the seriousness of the offence, but…

Compensation for compulsorily acquired land is assessed by applying the statutory market-value rule to the property as it stood at the valuation date.…

For the third condition in paragraph 5(4) of Schedule 6 to the Land Registration Act 2002, an applicant’s belief that adjoining land belongs to them need not…

The Upper Tribunal may award costs when acting as arbitrator in a reference by consent under section 1(5) of the Lands Tribunal Act 1949. Rule 10(6)(b) of the…

For rating purposes, a containerised self-storage hereditament is ordinarily valued by assessing the whole site and adding an appropriate value for the…

Section 84(1) of the Law of Property Act 1925 concerns restrictions on the physical use of land or buildings. It does not extend to a restriction which merely…

Under rule 13(1)(b), a costs order requires objectively unreasonable conduct in bringing, defending or conducting proceedings. The tribunal must first identify…

For compensation based on diminution in the value of a freeholder’s interest in other property, the statutory reference to an interest means a legal or…

Orders under section 20C of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 and paragraph 5A of Schedule 11 to the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 are discretionary…

A tribunal-appointed manager under Part 2 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 must meet high professional standards and act with candour. A tribunal…

A lease that provides for balancing charges based on expenditure already incurred does not authorise demands for estimated future service charges unless it…

Where an RTM company fails to serve a notice inviting participation on every qualifying tenant who is entitled to receive one, Commonhold and Leasehold Reform…

Where an acquiring authority cannot identify an owner after diligent inquiry, Compulsory Purchase Act 1965, s.5(1) does not require service of a notice to…

A service-charge provision allowing a management company to apportion maintenance costs among leaseholders who “have the use of” particular building parts…

For rating purposes, a hereditament must be valued according to its physical state and mode or category of occupation at the material day. A temporary…

A statutory pitch-fee review notice is not invalid merely because it states an inaccurate review date. Validity depends on whether a reasonable recipient would…

Under section 84 of the Law of Property Act 1925, planning permission does not determine whether a restrictive covenant should be modified. A use may be…

For a rent repayment order based on the management or control of an unlicensed HMO, the tribunal must consider statutory defences arising from the evidence…

On an appeal against a civil penalty for managing an unlicensed property, the tribunal must make its own decision rather than review the local authority’s…

In collective-enfranchisement valuation, development potential is valued by reference to what a knowledgeable hypothetical purchaser would pay at the valuation…

A reasonable-excuse defence to the continuing offence of controlling or managing an unlicensed HMO must be established for the whole period during which the…

For the right to manage, a self-contained part of a building under section 72 of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 need not be the smallest possible…

Orders under Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, section 20C, and Schedule 11 to the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 may properly be made against a…

Failure to serve a right-to-manage claim notice on an intermediate landlord does not necessarily invalidate the claim. Where the landlord has no management…

Under section 84 of the Law of Property Act 1925, the jurisdictional routes in section 84(1A)(a) and (b) are alternatives. An applicant relying only on section…

In valuing a small independent hotel for rating purposes, the fair maintainable trade method may be used where reliable rental evidence and a settled tone of…

For rating, a hereditament must be valued in its actual physical condition on the material day. Tenant-funded fitting-out works are not generally disregarded…

A statutory caravan does not cease to be stationed on land merely because it stands on a float above water covering land. Where an agreement permits occupation…

Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 does not impose a general obligation on a landlord to repair all common parts or common facilities in a block of…

Where the resolution of disputed facts depends on the credibility of competing witnesses, the First-tier Tribunal will ordinarily be unable to determine the…

Under section 84 of the Law of Property Act 1925, a restriction may be modified under ground (aa) only where its continued existence impedes a reasonable use…

A certified place of religious worship is a place of public religious worship where all properly disposed persons may attend and the organisation objectively…

For rating purposes, long-term mothballing of a power station does not, without more, create a separate mode or category of occupation. The relevant category…