[2025] UKUT 320 (LC)

On 15 and 16 April 2025 I heard and dismissed an appeal by the appellants from a case management decision of the First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) dated 9 December 2024. Permission to appeal had been given by the FTT itself and the appeal had been heard expeditiously because it concerned proceedings which had been listed for final determination in the FTT.

I gave my decision orally at the conclusion of the hearing and issued a decision notice the same day recording that the appeal had been dismissed. A transcript of the decision was subsequently produced and published with corrections on 3 September, bearing the neutral citation number [2025] UKUT 246 (LC).

I received applications on 9 May from all three respondents for orders under rule 10(3)(b) of the Tribunal’s Rules that the appellants pay their respective costs of the appeal on the grounds that they had behaved unreasonably in bringing or conducting the appeal. The second respondent had not participated in hearing but had made submissions in writing and sought to recover the cost of these.

In response to the application for costs the appellants contended that no order should be made because: (a) the applications had been made out of time; or, (b) the substantive requirements of rule 10(3)(b) are not met.

The parties have exchanged submissions and counter-submissions on the applications, and I have been provided with schedules of costs by the respondents and comments on them by the appellants.

The following sums (including VAT) are claimed by the respondents:

I will determine the applications in accordance with the guidance in Willow Court Management Co (1985) Ltd v Alexander [2016] L. & T.R. 34 which has recently been approved by the Court of Appeal in Lea v Ilfracombe Management Co Ltd [2025] 1 WLR 371. The issues which I must consider are therefore these: