Case No. UKUT-152-(LC)-UTLC-Case-Number:-LC-2021-240

258.Paragraph 84 of the Code entitles APW to its reasonable legal and valuation expenses outside of its litigation costs. APW has claimed legal costs in the sum of £6,276 excluding VAT for Audley House and £6,472 excluding VAT for Port Talbot and Huntingdon together.259.On Tower objects to paying any of these costs at all on the basis that the claims and associated costs schedules were submitted to the Tribunal and served on On Tower on 23 April 2022, the Sunday before commencement of the hearing on 25 April. We are not moved by this complaint. On Tower was well aware that a claim would be made and will have been unsurprised by receiving it; its representatives did not have to make any submissions in response until after the hearing and then had several days in which to produce very brief submissions. On Tower has not been disadvantaged by the late submission of costs.260.On Tower also objects to the level of fees claimed. It is concerned that transaction costs may eclipse rents, and that the costs allowed by the Tribunal will be relied upon to inflate expenses sought in consensual transactions. It is also concerned that too many fee earners are shown (in the costs schedules) to have been involved in the transactions, including some litigators, and that therefore there may be duplication of work and the accidental inclusion of litigation expenses. 261.These were never going to be inexpensive transactions, in view of the number of terms that the parties had to negotiate and of the fact that both parties regarded the health and safety terms as issues of principle. As is pointed out for APW the complexity is seen by the number of colours on the travelling drafts; these were not three matching leases and none of them was simple. We accept the transaction costs as claimed, and we point out that there is no reason for them to be matched in less complex deals where the parties are able to reach agreement. We do not think that the costs claimed are likely to have been inaccurate (there is no reason to think for example that they include litigation costs, since the vast majority of the costs claimed relate to a single fee-earner who is not a litigator). Nor do we think that the costs are unreasonable in light of the number of issues involved. We allow the transaction costs as claimed. Judge Elizabeth Cooke Mark Higgin FRICS 17 June 2022