Upper Tribunal: Lands Chamber judgments, 2025

Lease terms must be construed by identifying what a reasonable person, with the relevant background knowledge, would understand the language to mean. The court…

Under section 84 of the Law of Property Act 1925, satisfaction of a statutory ground gives the Tribunal a discretion to modify a restrictive covenant; it does…

Where a costs application is made shortly outside the prescribed period, the tribunal may extend time where the delay is minimal, no prejudice has been…

A rent repayment order is punitive and deterrent rather than compensatory, but the tenant’s experience remains relevant because it bears on the landlord’s…

A notice under section 13 of the Housing Act 1988 is valid if it identifies a lawful commencement date satisfying the statutory timing requirements. It need…

When assessing a crowding and space hazard under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, standards not directly applicable to the accommodation may…

An appellate tribunal should not interfere with factual findings or multifactorial evaluations unless the decision is plainly wrong, affected by an…

In determining whether lease covenants have been breached, the tribunal must construe the relevant words objectively in their documentary, factual and…

Under Part I of the Land Compensation Act 1973, compensation is payable where the use of public works causes specified physical factors to increase and that…

The First-tier Tribunal has jurisdiction under section 4 of the Mobile Homes Act 1983 to determine whether a site owner has breached an agreement by enforcing…

For the purposes of the standard HMO test, accommodation is within Housing Act 2004, s 254(2)(f), if it lacks one or more basic amenities. A microwave oven…

A lease providing for service-charge payments on account on the usual quarter days permits one annual sum payable by quarterly instalments, unless clear…

On an appeal concerning an HMO licence, the First-tier Tribunal must make its own assessment of suitability but must engage with relevant local-authority…

Under the Mobile Homes Act 1983, a site owner may recover charges for utilities only to the extent authorised by the residents’ agreements. Standard terms…

Under regulation 14(1B) of the Non-Domestic Rating (Alteration of Lists and Appeals) (England) Regulations 2009, an alteration correcting an inaccuracy in a…

In compulsory-purchase compensation claims for loss of profits, the claimant must establish the profits or losses in the real world and in the hypothetical “no…

For costs purposes, a party does not beat a settlement offer merely because the tribunal grants relief in a different legal form. The comparison is…

An unsuccessful appeal does not, without more, amount to unreasonable conduct for the purposes of an appeal costs rule. A party is entitled to challenge a…

A lease must be construed as a whole. A plan described as being for identification only cannot simply be disregarded where the verbal description does not…

A charge payable for services is a service charge under section 18(1) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 only if the whole or part of it varies, or may vary…

Where a party withdraws proceedings and promptly seeks to resume them, the tribunal must consider whether the communication should be treated as an application…

The RPI presumption governing pitch-fee reviews is a starting point, not an entitlement or ceiling. In deciding whether it would be unreasonable to apply the…

A covenant prohibiting removal of a landlord’s fixtures is breached when fixtures are removed without consent, even if they are replaced with new items. The…

For recognition as a recognised tenants’ association, a qualifying tenant is not limited to a long leaseholder. The question is whether, under the relevant…

A covenant requiring sufficient underfelt and carpets to minimise sound induction imposes both a furnishing requirement and an outcome requirement. The court…

In valuing a hereditament consisting of advertising rights, the statutory rules governing advertising hereditaments apply directly. Plant and machinery…

Under section 84 of the Law of Property Act 1925, a restrictive covenant may be modified where it impedes a reasonable use and does not secure practical…

For adverse possession under Schedule 6 of the Land Registration Act 2002, possession during a lease is possession as tenant and is not adverse. The court must…

Compensation for compulsory acquisition is assessed by reference to the property’s market value at the vesting date. No deduction is made merely because the…

In leasehold enfranchisement valuation, relativity graphs are a useful cross-check, but they do not determine the value of either the existing lease or the…

Under rule 10(10) of the Tribunal Procedure (Upper Tribunal) (Lands Chamber) Rules 2010, the period for applying for costs runs from the decision notice…

In compensation proceedings under the Electricity Act 1989, costs are governed principally by s.4 of the Land Compensation Act 1961 where that provision…

Where a tribunal proceeding is brought against a party, service on that party’s agent is ineffective unless the party has authorised the agent to receive…

On an appeal concerning a Certificate of Appropriate Alternative Development, the Tribunal must determine the proposed development as if the application had…

Paragraph 8 of Schedule 8 to the Building Safety Act 2022 protects qualifying leaseholders from service charges for unsafe cladding remediation, whether or not…

An appeal from a Rent Assessment Committee in Wales under Rent Act 1977 section 65A is an unrestricted appeal on a point of law; permission is not required.…

An appellate tribunal should be cautious about permitting a new point which was not argued below. It should not generally allow a point requiring new evidence…

Under section 35 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987, the question is whether the lease makes satisfactory provision in the circumstances that exist, not…

Under section 84 of the Law of Property Act 1925, restrictive covenants may be modified where they impede a reasonable use, secure no practical benefits of…

Under rule 13(1)(b) of the Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) (Property Chamber) Rules 2013, unreasonable conduct is assessed objectively. The question…

A prescriptive easement based on lost modern grant requires long user as of right against the fee simple and a possible competent grantor. The grant need not…

When determining the terms of a Code agreement, the tribunal must assess the operator’s present and future business needs and the site provider’s potential…

In rating valuation, the statutory rental hypothesis must be applied to the property’s physical state at the material day, while the rental value is assessed…

A tribunal deciding whether to extend time for an appeal against a civil penalty must apply the three-stage approach in Denton v TH White Ltd: assess the…

Compensation for compulsory acquisition must reflect the owner’s loss, assessed on the principle of equivalence. Where a business is extinguished, compensation…

The statutory definition of a person managing premises is not satisfied merely because a person has a management agreement, performs management-related tasks…

Buildings occupied with agricultural land qualify for rating exemption only where they are used solely in connection with agricultural operations. Retail sales…

Section 84 of the Law of Property Act 1925 does not give the Upper Tribunal jurisdiction to modify an easement merely because its limited use prevents…

For the statutory exception concerning a house in multiple occupation to apply, the owner or lessee must have entered into an arrangement with a non-owner or…

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…

Under section 14(7) of the Housing Act 1988, the First-tier Tribunal may postpone the commencement of a rent determined under section 14 only where it finds…

A contractual option to renew a tenancy will create a perpetually renewable tenancy only where the wording is unequivocal. Courts lean against perpetual…

Under Law of Property Act 1925, s.84(1)(aa), the Tribunal must first decide whether the restriction impedes a reasonable use and whether it secures a practical…

Compensation for compulsory acquisition must reflect the owner’s actual loss, applying the statutory no-scheme principle and the principle of equivalence.…

In rent-determination proceedings, the landlord is the proper respondent. A managing agent named by the tenant does not become the landlord’s representative…

On an appeal from a civil penalty decision, the First-tier Tribunal must start from the local authority’s enforcement policy and explain any departure from it.…

Failure to comply with an improvement notice constitutes an offence unless the person has a reasonable excuse. Difficulties caused by tenants, disagreement…

For the 12-month limit governing rent repayment orders, an offence under section 72(1) of the Housing Act 2004 is not treated as committed during a period when…

A service-charge clause focused on management does not ordinarily authorise recovery of litigation costs. The absence of an express reference to legal costs is…

For rating purposes, Category B fitting-out works may increase the rateable value of modern Grade A offices above their Category A value. The uplift must be…

Under section 84(1)(aa) of the Law of Property Act 1925, a restrictive covenant may be modified where it impedes reasonable use and secures no practical…

Where a tribunal has already determined rent repayment percentages for the same landlord, property and factual matrix, it is unfair and irrational, or involves…

Compensation for a necessary electricity wayleave should reflect the owner’s loss over the wayleave period. Where the apparatus both reduces the value of the…

Whether a claimed easement is too extensive to be an easement depends on whether, viewed as a matter of fact and degree, it would leave the servient owner…

For the purposes of Housing Act 2004, a “person managing” is identified by management responsibility, not merely by the receipt of a payment. A landlord may…

In a determined-boundary dispute, the boundary is established by construing the deed which created it in its factual setting. A plan expressed to be for…

Under section 19 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, a tenant challenging a service charge must first establish a prima facie case that the relevant cost was…

For a rent repayment order based on an unlicensed house in multiple occupation, the applicant must prove beyond reasonable doubt that the relevant occupiers…

Where mortgaged land is worth less than the secured mortgage debt, compensation must be agreed by the mortgagee, the person entitled to the equity of…

A rent repayment order under section 40 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016 may be made only against the landlord under the relevant tenancy. A person who…

Rectification for common mistake requires proof of the parties’ subjective intentions and an outward expression of accord between them. Communication through…

On an appeal on a point of law, a tribunal determining a rent under the Housing Act 1988 must make a clear finding about the contractual terms governing the…

Section 43(2) of the Housing and Planning Act 2016 imposes cumulative timing requirements for a rent repayment order. For offences relating to an unlicensed…

A tenant challenging service charges under sections 19 and 27A of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 must first raise a prima facie case indicating that the cost…

On an appeal against an improvement notice, the First-tier Tribunal must explain why the local housing authority was not wrong to choose that form of…

In rating valuation, the actual rent of the hereditament is ordinarily the proper starting point where it was agreed close to the antecedent valuation date and…

Payment of service charges does not, without more, amount to an agreement or admission barring a determination under Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, section 27A.…

For a rent repayment order under section 41(2)(b) of the Housing and Planning Act 2016, the 12-month period includes the whole day on which the application is…

A tribunal may raise an issue not advanced by the parties, but only where it concerns jurisdiction or a fundamental problem, is required by statute, or is…

The construction of a lease is objective. The tribunal must ascertain the meaning a reasonable person with the relevant background knowledge would give to its…

Modification of a restrictive covenant under Law of Property Act 1925, section 84, requires the statutory jurisdictional conditions to be established before…

Fresh evidence will be admitted on appeal only where the cumulative requirements in Ladd v Marshall [1954] 1 WLR 1489 are met. The party must show that the…

An applicant for rectification of the register must prove, on the balance of probabilities, that the register contains a mistake. Where adjoining properties…

A boundary demarcation agreement resolves uncertainty about the true boundary; it does not transfer land merely because its effect may be that a small area is…

In assessing disturbance compensation for compulsory acquisition, the claimant’s actual financial position must be compared with the position in the…

Under the interim-rights regime in the Communications Act 2003, there is no rule that consideration for a non-intrusive survey right must be nominal, or that…

An approval covenant requiring plans to receive the reasonable approval of “the Vendor” is personal to the original vendor where the conveyance does not extend…

When a service charge is demanded before relevant costs are incurred, reasonableness must be assessed under section 19(2) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.…

A First-tier Tribunal may review its own decision only within the statutory limits and in relation to a specific matter. Where the alleged error concerns an…

Compensation under section 84(1)(ii) of the Law of Property Act 1925 is a fact-specific assessment of the effect which a restrictive covenant had on the…

An application under section 27A is adversarial. The First-tier Tribunal should ordinarily determine the parties’ pleaded dispute, not formulate a distinct…

A lease provision requiring a year-end adjustment certified as due to a leaseholder to be credited to that leaseholder prevents the landlord from transferring…

An application made before expiry of a tribunal-appointed manager’s term may be determined after expiry. The First-tier Tribunal retains power under section…

Factual possession requires an appropriate degree of physical control assessed in light of the nature of the land and its ordinary use. Enclosure is not an…

For rating purposes, the assumption that a hereditament is in reasonable repair under Local Government Finance Act 1988, Schedule 6, paragraph 2(1)(b), applies…

On an appeal against an improvement notice under Part 1 of the Housing Act 2004, the FTT must determine whether the authority’s decision was wrong when made.…

A lease may fail to make satisfactory provision under section 35(2)(e) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 even if its terms are clear and have previously been…

In a lease-extension valuation, a tenant’s completed improvement must be disregarded, but the property’s latent potential for improvement remains an attribute…

For s 35 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987, satisfactory provision is assessed by reference to the circumstances existing when the application is determined.…

For a termination ground based on breach, an infrastructure provider acting as the operator’s agent does not thereby share the operator’s code rights or occupy…

A tenant’s liability for a variable service charge depends on the proper construction of the tenancy agreement. There is no presumption that every cost which a…

Compensation for loss allegedly caused by refusal of consent to fell a protected tree requires proof, on the balance of probabilities, that the refusal caused…

A rating appeal is confined to the alteration sought in the proposal. A ratepayer cannot introduce, at the tribunal stage, a new request to delete a…

For a pitch-fee review taking effect before 2 July 2023, the statutory presumption requires the Retail Prices Index to be used as the measure of inflation. The…

For a right-to-manage claim, whether premises are a self-contained part of a building under Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, section 72 is a purely…

An assignee of the benefit of a subsisting code agreement becomes a party to that agreement for the purposes of Part V of the Electronic Communications Code…

Where leaseholders raise a prima facie case that service-charge expenditure was not reasonably incurred, the evidential burden shifts to the landlord. In the…

Under paragraph 18(1)(aa) of the Mobile Homes Act 1983, a decrease in the amenity of a protected site may relate to a single pitch. It need not affect the…

In assessing planning need for purpose-built student accommodation, a decision-maker should normally consider the relevant functional area, including both…

For rating valuations of advertising rights on bus shelters, a digital six-sheet display may properly be valued at a higher multiple than a scrolling display…

On a rehearing appeal against a housing civil penalty, the First-tier Tribunal must apply the local authority’s policy according to its true meaning. Where a…