[2024] UKUT 109 (LC)

Chapter 1 of Part 2 of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 (the 2002 Act) makes provision for the acquisition by qualifying tenants of the right to manage premises to which Chapter 1 applies. Section 72(1)(a), 2002 Act requires that for Chapter 1 to apply the premises concerned must consist of a self-contained building or part of a building.

The right to manage is acquired through a company, known as an RTM company, but in Triplerose Ltd v 90 Broomfield Road RTM Co Ltd [2015] EWCA Civ 282 (Triplerose) the Court of Appeal determined that an RTM company may not manage more than one building.

The main issue in this appeal is whether premises in the Grand Union Village in Northolt comprise a single self-contained building over which the right to manage can be acquired. The First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) (the FTT) decided that they comprised three buildings rather than one and that the right to manage was not available to the appellant RTM company. But only a few weeks earlier a differently constituted panel of the FTT had decided that three different but similar buildings in the Grand Union Village were a single self-contained building eligible for the right to manage. When that decision was brought to the attention of the FTT in this case it granted permission to appeal its decision.

The appellant is the RTM company, GUV Harborough & Saltley House RTM Co Ltd. At the hearing of the appeal it was represented by Mr Carl Fain, who did not appear before the FTT.

There are three respondents to the appeal, although only one has participated, Trinity (Estates) Property Management Ltd, which I will refer to as the Management Company. It was represented at the hearing of the appeal by Mr Robert Bowker who again had not appeared before the FTT.