[2024] UKUT 341 (LC)

The appellant was granted permission to appeal by this Tribunal on the following ground:

“There is apparent substance in the applicant’s complaint that, if the FTT had regard to the schedule of letting evidence supplied by the applicant, it failed to explain how its view of the open market value of the flat in an assumed good lettable condition was consistent with that evidence. Permission to appeal is granted on that ground alone.”

In The Trustees of the Israel Moss Children’s Trust v Bandy [2015] UKUT 0276 (LC) the Deputy President, Martin Rodger QC, said at [11] that when the FTT was requested by a party to give reasons for its decision when determining a fair rent:

“… the reasons need not be elaborate or lengthy but they must be intelligible and deal with the substantial points which have been raised. Having read the reasons the parties should be able to understand why the decision had been reached.”

The difficulty with the FTT’s decision in this case is that it is not possible to understand why the FTT took the view that the fair market rent was £2,600 per month when the landlord’s comparables indicated a higher figure; the parties, and in particular the landlord, need to know why those comparables were rejected.

In the absence of that explanation the FTT’s decision cannot stand and is set aside.