[2024] UKUT 72 (LC)

This appeal is about insurance commissions and fees received by the appellants (or their agents) in their capacity as landlords of the Canary Riverside Estate.

By a decision handed down on 21 December 2022, the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) (the FTT) determined that the respondents, the residential leaseholders of the Estate, were not liable to pay service charges totalling £1,517,372 in respect of insurance and associated insurance premium tax of £121,338. It found that those sums had been received by agents of the appellants as a commission from the insurers of Canary Riverside and that under the terms of their leases the leaseholders had no liability to contribute towards them. In the alternative the FTT found that if the respondents were liable to contribute towards the cost of the insurance services in respect of which the commission was paid, the appellants had not demonstrated that the charges for those services (or any charges) were reasonable.

The FTT granted permission to appeal its decision on two grounds. It refused permission on other grounds, and I subsequently dismissed a renewed application to this Tribunal for permission on those additional grounds. The issues in the appeal are therefore concerned solely with the extent of the leaseholders’ contractual liability to contribute to the cost of insurance where the landlord has received a commission from the insurer out of the gross premium it has paid, and with the reasonableness of the charges in this case.

At the hearing of the appeal the appellants were represented by David Halpern KC and Justin Bates, and the respondents by Jonathan Upton and Mattie Green. I am grateful to them all for their assistance.