Upper Tribunal: Lands Chamber judgments, 2024

A notice under section 22 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 must tell the landlord the matters of which the tenant complains. The required degree of detail…

Under section 84 of the Law of Property Act 1925, a restrictive covenant is not obsolete merely because the land’s use has changed. The relevant question is…

A service-charge covenant is not a covenant to pay rent merely because rent is payable under the lease. The wording of the particular covenant determines its…

For the purposes of Part 5 of the Electronic Communications Code, a lawful assignee of the benefit of a subsisting licence is treated as the operator who is a…

Where an appellant seeks to introduce a materially important point not set out in the permitted grounds of appeal, the tribunal should ordinarily require an…

For a civil penalty for managing an unlicensed house in multiple occupation, the tribunal must be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the licensing offence…

Sections 13 and 14 of the Housing Act 1988 do not confer jurisdiction on the First-tier Tribunal to determine a new rent for an assured periodic tenancy…

For the purposes of rule 13(1)(b), unreasonable conduct is assessed objectively and factually. The conduct must lack a reasonable explanation; it need not be…

Under the Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) (Property Chamber) Rules 2013, the First-tier Tribunal must itself send its directions to each party and…

Where leaseholders raise a prima facie case that service-charge expenditure was not reasonably incurred, or that an estimated charge is unreasonable, the…

For the purposes of paragraph 1 of Schedule 6 to the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, an area is part of a building’s internal floor area only if it…

Under section 84 of the Law of Property Act 1925, an applicant must first establish a statutory ground for modifying or discharging a restrictive covenant. The…

Under the Mobile Homes Act 1983, a pitch fee increase requires the occupier’s agreement or a tribunal determination. Where the occupier does not respond, the…

A covenant that a tenant will comply with legal obligations is not implied into every lease by the landlord-and-tenant relationship. A term implied into a…

Proceedings to determine compensation under section 204 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016 are proceedings for compensation for injurious affection of land.…

A document issued after a proposed transfer of a site licence must be construed according to its terms and legal effect, not the issuing authority’s intention…

The statutory assumption that a hereditament is in reasonable repair requires valuation on the basis that damage has been remedied, including by reasonably…

Professional fees claimed as disturbance compensation must have been caused by the acquisition and must be reasonably incurred. The claimant must mitigate…

The exemption for a co-operative society in paragraph 2B of Schedule 14 to the Housing Act 2004 applies only where the society’s rules secure that all…

For limitation purposes, an application to the First-tier Tribunal is made when the applicant sends or delivers the notice of application required by rule…

A right to use land for exhibiting advertisements which is let out to someone other than the land occupier is a separate advertising hereditament under Local…

Where a landlord relies on reasonable excuse or an alleged licence application as a defence to an unlicensed HMO offence, the First-tier Tribunal must engage…

A tribunal determining a fair rent must give intelligible reasons which address substantial points raised by the parties. Where letting comparables are relied…

A lessee under an equitable long lease is a qualifying tenant for the right to manage where no legal lease of the flat exists. Where legal and equitable long…

In a costs decision following a successful appeal under section 18 of the Land Compensation Act 1961, the starting point is that costs follow the event. A…

Where mortgaged land is compulsorily acquired and its value is less than the secured mortgage debt, compensation cannot be settled solely between the mortgagee…

For the purposes of a rent repayment order, Housing and Planning Act 2016, section 41(2)(b), requires the offence to have been committed within the whole-day…

For rating purposes, the geographical test is primary when identifying a hereditament. A functional analysis may divide a geographical unit only in appropriate…

Under Compulsory Purchase Act 1965, section 7, injurious-affection compensation is assessed at the valuation date. The assessment disregards the acquiring…

An application challenging a rent increase under section 13(4) of the Housing Act 1988 may be made in a form substantially to the same effect as the prescribed…

A landlord may have a reasonable excuse for operating an unlicensed HMO if, after a material change in occupation, they relied on incorrect licensing…

In a retrospective open-market valuation, events occurring after the valuation date which were not known, and could not have been known, at that date must be…

When the First-tier Tribunal considers procedural non-compliance, it must apply its own procedural rules and overriding objective. Civil court principles may…

On a protected park homes site, the occupier’s liability for gas and electricity is limited to the actual unit cost charged by the utility supplier. The…

Under rule 34 of the Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) (Property Chamber) Rules 2013, the First-tier Tribunal may proceed in a party’s absence only…

Under the pitch-fee regime in the Mobile Homes Act 1983, an increase or decrease in line with the relevant index is a rebuttable presumption, not an…

When determining market rent, a tribunal must take into account material evidence relevant to the property’s condition and explain how that evidence affects…

Under rule 13(1)(b), whether conduct in bringing, defending or conducting proceedings is unreasonable is determined objectively. The question is whether there…

An agreement for the use of land is a lease if, in substance, it grants exclusive possession of defined land for a term at a rent, unless possession is…

For rating purposes, barristers’ chambers may constitute a single hereditament even though individual members occupy separate rooms for their own practices.…

A minor error in a pitch fee review notice or prescribed form does not invalidate it where the statutory requirements have been met and a reasonable recipient…

A rent repayment order may be made only against the landlord under the tenancy generating the rent to be repaid. The relevant landlord must have received the…

A tribunal determining whether a caravan-site licence condition is unduly burdensome must not impose conditions which undermine settled planning enforcement…

In a receipts and expenditure valuation, the hypothetical tenant is assumed to make a prudent assessment from the available trading evidence, but not to…

Where a tribunal is required to serve an application on each named respondent, service by email on one joint respondent does not amount to service on the other…

An improvement notice may be served only where the authority is satisfied that a category 2 hazard exists. The notice must identify the hazard, the deficiency…

For a prescriptive easement, use must be open and as of right. A warning sign defeats the claim only if, viewed in context, it clearly communicates to the…

On renewal of an agreement under the Electronic Communications Code, a redevelopment break clause may be appropriate even where redevelopment is for a…

The Upper Tribunal may determine both the incidence and assessment of costs after setting aside a First-tier Tribunal costs order and remaking the underlying…

Under the Housing and Planning Act 2016, a rent repayment order may require repayment only of rent paid by the tenant who applies. A sole joint tenant cannot…

When determining financial penalties for several housing offences, the decision-maker must assess each offender separately and then apply the totality…

Under ground (a) of section 84(1) of the Law of Property Act 1925, a restrictive covenant is obsolete only where changes in the character of the property or…

Leaseholders are not liable for legal or mediation costs through a service charge unless the lease clearly permits recovery. General wording concerning…

For rating purposes, the primary test for identifying a hereditament is geographical. A single territorial unit may nevertheless be divided where severable…

A covenant to maintain a building may include preventive work, but does not ordinarily require the landlord to remedy an inherent structural defect or make…

On a pitch-fee review under the Mobile Homes Act 1983, the tribunal may reduce the fee below the amount previously agreed or determined where that is…

A restrictive covenant limiting land to an old persons’ warden scheme was not obsolete merely because that form of accommodation was no longer financially…

For the purposes of section 19(1)(a) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, a leaseholder may raise a prima facie case concerning an insurance commission through…

In determining market rent under Housing Act 1988, the relevant valuation date is the date on which the proposed new rent takes effect. Events occurring…

A landlord’s ignorance of a licensing requirement may constitute a reasonable excuse, but only where the ignorance was objectively reasonable in the landlord’s…

A pitch fee review notice and the prescribed pitch fee review form may be combined in one document. The statutory scheme does not require duplication of…

Under Law of Property Act 1925, section 84(1), the Tribunal must first decide whether a statutory ground for discharge or modification is established and then…

Use relied upon to acquire an easement by prescription must be as of right. A landowner may make use contentious by maintaining an appropriately visible and…

Under section 84(1)(aa) of the Law of Property Act 1925, the Tribunal has no jurisdiction to modify a restrictive covenant where, in preventing the proposed…

A tribunal determining service-charge liability must address the landlord’s material case and explain why the evidence does not establish compliance with the…

On a section 18 appeal concerning a certificate of appropriate alternative development, the Tribunal must determine the matter afresh, applying ordinary…

An operator which has exhausted its right to renew a tenancy under Part 2 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 cannot obtain a second opportunity to renew the…

Rent arrears falling outside the repayment period may nevertheless be relevant to the tenant’s conduct when fixing a rent repayment order. Under Housing and…

For exemption under paragraph 3(a) of Schedule 5 to the Local Government Finance Act 1988, a building must be occupied together with agricultural land and used…

Section 233 of the Local Government Act 1972 applies to a local housing authority’s request for information required by conditions attached to a statutory…

For discharge under ground (a) of section 84(1) of the Law of Property Act 1925, a restriction is not obsolete where its original object remains capable of…

Leaseholder protections under Building Safety Act 2022 Schedule 8 must be considered by the tribunal whenever a service charge relates to building-safety…

In the statutory scheme for acquiring the right to manage, notices must be served in accordance with the address provisions in section 111(4) of the Commonhold…

An express lease term requiring a landlord to act “reasonably” when exercising a service-charge discretion ordinarily requires objective reasonableness, not…

When exercising its discretion under paragraph 5A of Schedule 11 to the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, the First-tier Tribunal must consider all…

Under section 84 of the Law of Property Act 1925, a consent covenant in favour of a company which has been dissolved may be discharged as obsolete. A covenant…

For the right to manage to arise, the claimed premises must be a self-contained building or part of a building under sections 72 and 73 of the Commonhold and…

An improvement notice may be correctly served at the owner’s last known address, including the address for service recorded at HM Land Registry. Correct…

Payment of service charges does not, by itself, amount to agreement or admission under section 27A(4) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. The statutory…

On a reference of a rent-increase notice, the First-tier Tribunal must determine the statutory open-market rent on the material fairly available to both…

A tenant who has agreed that the absence of formal consultation is not an issue cannot invoke that absence to challenge a service charge. It is a matter agreed…

Where a lease permits recovery of all sums paid in respect of specified insurance, the recoverable cost is the gross premium where commissions paid from it…

A contractual power to adopt a different method of apportioning service-charge expenditure must be construed in the context of the lease as a whole. Where a…

An appellate tribunal should interfere with first-instance findings of fact based on oral evidence only where the decision was plainly wrong: the question is…

Under section 84 of the Law of Property Act 1925, a restriction cannot be modified under ground (aa) where it secures a practical benefit of substantial value…

A tribunal-appointed manager under section 24 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 is not an accountable person under Part 4 of the Building Safety Act 2022. A…

For the third condition in paragraph 5(4) of Schedule 6 to the Land Registration Act 2002, the applicant must have reasonably believed, for at least ten years…

Under section 20ZA of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, urgency is not a condition of dispensation from the service-charge consultation requirements. The…

A decrease in the amenity of a protected park home site is relevant to a pitch-fee review under Mobile Homes Act 1983, Schedule 2, paragraph 18(1)(aa), even…

A building falls within the Code definition of electronic communications apparatus only where its sole purpose is to enclose other such apparatus. That…

A leaseholder’s statutory right under Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, section 27A to obtain a determination of their own service-charge liability is not…

An assured tenancy expressed to continue from month to month is a periodic tenancy, even if its initial term is described as one month. Where the tenancy…

A landlord does not waive the right to forfeit a lease for unpaid service charges merely by issuing County Court proceedings for a money judgment for those…

On a reference of a landlord’s rent-increase notice, the First-tier Tribunal must determine the open-market rent prescribed by Housing Act 1988, section 14.…

A landlord’s ignorance of an additional HMO licensing scheme will rarely constitute a reasonable excuse where it has not taken reasonable steps to keep abreast…

Under section 35 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987, the statutory grounds are gateway conditions rather than automatic entitlements to vary leases. For the…

Where reliable, near-contemporaneous transactional evidence exists for the subject short lease, its value without statutory lease-extension rights should…

The Tribunal’s power under rule 54 to set aside a final decision arises only where one of the specified procedural conditions is satisfied and it is in the…

A notice of intent to impose a housing financial penalty must give the recipient enough information to understand the alleged conduct and make informed…

A Court of Appeal construction of a statutory condition is binding where that construction was a necessary step in its decision, even though the point was not…

Where mortgaged land is compulsorily acquired and its value is less than the secured debt, compensation must be agreed by the mortgagee, the person entitled to…

A unit is a self-contained flat for the standard HMO test where it satisfies the definition in section 254(8) of the Housing Act 2004. The tribunal must…

A statutory implied repairing covenant in a right-to-buy lease is an additional landlord obligation. It does not rewrite express repairing covenants or create…

An occupier’s entitlement to occupy a mobile home as an only or main residence for the purposes of Mobile Homes Act 1983 section 1(1) is not determined solely…

Under Law of Property Act 1925, s.84, the Tribunal must first determine whether a statutory ground for discharge or modification is established and then…

Where a tenant assigns a flat together with the benefit of a section 42 notice, the assignee also assumes the liabilities arising from that notice.…