... a case about service charges, balancing payments, LVT procedure and precedent. In Holding and Management (Solitaire) Ltd v Sherwin [2010] UKUT 412 (LC), the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) had to grapple with s.20B, Landlord and Tenant Act 1985....
Right to manage: two from the Upper Tribunal
Chapter 1, Part 2, Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 makes provision for "qualifying tenants" of a building to form a company that, in turn, will acquire the right to manage the property from the freeholder. It is largely modeled on the...
Caretakers and the Court of Appeal
Continuing with the (ir)regular residential leasehold update, we have Cadogan v Panagopoulos [2010] EWCA Civ 1259, on appeal from the High Court (our note, here), which was itself an appeal from the county court. I'm not going to set out the...
Service charges: a welcome return to orthodoxy
Whilst we're waiting for Wednesday, (when the Supreme Court will give judgment in Pinnock, in case you were wondering), the housing law world doesn't stop in the interim. Far from it. So, without further ado, lets turn to Regent Management Ltd v...
Sale and rent back – coming soon?
Word reaches us (via the Garden Court North website) of what appears to be a fascinating piece of litigation in the High Court (Leeds District Registry) concerning sale and rent back schemes (as to which, see our earlier piece, here). A number of...
RTM costs (or, how not to grant permission to appeal)
Wilson v Lesley Place (RTM) Company Ltd [2010] UKUT 342 (LC) I confess to being a bit bitter about this case. The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) is hideously overworked. It can (and often does) take over a year for an appeal from an LVT to get...
New duty advice scheme at the London LVT
Yesterday the Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE) announced in a press release that it would be operating a morning duty advice scheme at the London offices of the LVT from 21 September 2010. This news follows hot foot on the announcement that from...
A broken engagement
Dibble v Pfluger [2010] EWCA Civ 1005 concerns an appeal in a joint property case, largely decided on its facts. It has one interesting point of note for anyone who practices in this field: the couples were engaged to be married for much of the...
Unhappiness in the (e)state of Belgravia
Donath v Trustees of the Second Duke of Westminster Will Trust [PDF] is a first instance decision of the LVT. We do not normally reports such things but it concerns an application to vary an old-style estate management scheme. So rarely does one...
Service charges due and payable?
Staunton v Kaye & Anor [2010] UKUT 270 (LC) This is a rather confused matter from the Upper Tribunal (Lands) sitting in Manchester. It is made all the more confused by a transcript which muddles parties and at one point suggests the LVT was in...
Fee hike for appeals from the LVT
The ministry of justice has just published its response [PDF] to its consultation on fees for the Lands Tribunal — now of course the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber). This is bad news if you are an appellant. The fee for seeking permission to appeal...
An ugly metaphor
This is the Strata Tower, less than proud winner of Building Design's 2010 Carbuncle Cup, awarded to the ugliest new building in the country for its 'odour of boy musk', 'grim stridency' and for auditioning for a 'James Bond title sequence in the...