[2024] UKUT 54 (LC)

This appeal is against a decision of the First-tier Tribunal, Property Chamber (the FTT) first made on 19 October 2022 and confirmed following a review on 12 April 2023, by which it struck out applications brought by the appellants, Mr Connell and Ms Lynn, under section 27A, Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 for a determination of the service charges payable by them in respect of their properties at the Burton Waters Estate in Lincoln.

This Tribunal granted permission to appeal on 3 August 2023 and the matter was listed for hearing on 21 February 2024. In the event, the respondents, to whom the disputed service charges are payable, conceded that the FTT should not have struck out the application so far as it concerned the charges payable by the appellants (a third applicant whose application was also struck out has not sought to challenge the FTT’s decision).

A concession by a respondent to an appeal is not a sufficient basis on which an appellate tribunal can conclude that a decision of a lower tribunal was wrong and should be set aside and the underlying matter remitted to it for reconsideration. Setting aside a decision of the FTT requires a judicial determination. As this is a straightforward case, the Tribunal suggested, and the parties agreed, that it should be determined without a hearing on the basis of the written material already provided.

I am grateful to both parties for their original submissions, and to the respondents for their sensible concession.