[2025] UKUT 136 (LC)

On 6 May the Building Owner’s solicitors informed CTIL’s solicitors that it might be necessary to apply to the FTT for permission to rely on expert valuation evidence, but it was not until 19 June, less than four weeks before the hearing, that any application was made. No draft report was provided with the application, which proposed that the parties exchange expert evidence seven days before the hearing.

The Building Owner’s request was opposed by CTIL and was refused by a procedural judge of the FTT in a decision communicated to the parties on 24 June, as follows:

“The application in respect of expert witness evidence is refused. The application is misconceived. This is an application for an MSV only. Decisions of the Upper Tribunal and the FTT have consistently made nominal orders for consideration only in respect of survey visits.”

At the start of the hearing on 16 July 2024 the FTT dismissed an application for permission to appeal the refusal to permit expert evidence and proceeded to determine the reference without it. By a decision issued on 24 July it imposed an agreement on the parties for the interim rights requested in return for consideration of £1. Compensation was also provided for to meet certain expenses which would be incurred by the Building Owner and its general right to obtain compensation for any loss suffered as a result of the exercise of the interim rights was acknowledged.

In a second decision published on 9 September 2024, the FTT ordered the Building Owner to pay a contribution of £8,400 towards CTIL’s costs of the reference (a sum intended to cover counsel’s fees only).