[2025] UKUT 111 (LC)

As its name suggests, the Glossop Road Baths Building in Cavendish Street, Sheffield is a former Victorian public swimming pool and baths. The upper floors of the building have been converted to provide 21 residential apartments, while the ground floor comprises three commercial units which have been used variously as shops, a pub, and a supermarket.

The freehold of the building is owned by Sheffield City Council. On 14 January 2008 it granted a head lease of the whole building to the respondent, the Sheffield Bath Company Ltd, for a term of 150 years. The respondent then granted long leases of the 21 apartments in the building. The leases are on conventional terms which oblige the respondent to keep the building in repaired and maintained and require the leaseholders to pay a service charge to fund those services. The commercial parts of the building are also let on terms requiring the payment of service charges.

21 July 2021 the FTT appointed Matthew Kirk of Rendell and Rittner Ltd, a large property management firm based in Manchester, to be the manager of the building for a period of three years from the date of the order. Mr Kirk’s responsibilities related specifically to the residential parts of the building and to its structure and did not include the ground floor commercial units.

Mr Kirk was appointed on an application under section 24, Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 made by Peter Sephton, in his capacity as Chair of the Glossop Road Baths Residents' Association. The FTT heard evidence that the roof of the building had been in need of urgent repair since at least March 2020 and that eight apartments were suffering from rainwater penetration causing damage to the interior, including the collapse of part of the ceiling in one. The FTT was satisfied that it was just and convenient to appoint a manager because of the respondent’s breaches of its repairing obligations.

Unfortunately, the management of the building has not progressed as was intended. Whether that has been due to the refusal of the respondent to comply with FTT directions requiring the provision of documents, information and contributions equal to 40% of the cost of repairs and maintenance, as the manager and the leaseholders maintain, or whether it is explained by the manager’s neglect of his responsibilities, as the respondent suggests, is not an issue in this appeal. It is not in doubt that substantial works are still required and that the funds to pay for them have not yet been collected.

The management order provided that, no later than 28 days before the end of the period of his appointment on 21 July 2024, the manager was to apply to the FTT for directions as to the disposal of any unexpended monies, and to make a written report on the progress and outcome of his management of the building. The order continued, at paragraph 23, as follows:

“By no later than 28 days after the application referred to in the previous paragraph is determined by the tribunal, the manager shall: a) reimburse any unexpended monies in accordance with the tribunal's directions; b) prepare final closing accounts and send copies of the accounts and the Final Report to the landlord and lessees, who may raise queries on them within 14 days; c) answer any such queries within a further 14 days.”