[2024] UKUT 383 (LC)

This is of course an appeal on a point of law. The appellant disagrees with the FTT’s construction of the relevant statutory provision. Nevertheless some of the appellant’s arguments appear to question the facts to which the FTT had regard. In particular, it is argued that the base of the right-hand roof-void is a floor, meeting the RICS’ definition and meeting the dictionary definition which extends to the base of an area.

At paragraph 27 of the FTT’s decision the FTT said: “The roof space is unfloored”. That was not expressed as a finding of fact, but as an observation made in the course of the site visit. Insofar as it is a finding of fact the appellant does not have permission to appeal it, but in any event it could not sensibly be challenged. The space between the joists of the roof void that we saw, of which we reproduced a photograph above, is not a floor. It is the upper surface of a ceiling. No-one could realistically call it a floor, and the notice pinned to the rafter is incorrect insofar as it refers to a floor.

That much is obvious without the need for a dictionary or for any technical specification. The Shorter English Dictionary defines a “floor” as “the under surface of the interior of a room”; of course the word can be used in other senses, but only in other contexts – so we can talk about the ocean floor but that is no guide to what might be regarded as a floor in a building. The RICS definition (a “normally horizontal, permanent, load-bearing structure for each level”) captures what is normally meant by a floor, and what is seen in the right-hand roof void cannot be regarded as satisfying that definition or any common-sense view of what a floor is.

We proceed on the basis that the right-hand roof void has no floor. And there is no evidence that the inaccessible left-hand void has a floor.

The appellant also disagrees with the FTT’s view that the landlord would not be able to use the roof void if it had access to it. We regard that as an inference drawn from the facts rather than a finding of fact, but in any event the appeal fails even if the FTT was wrong about it.