[2025] UKUT 320 (LC)

During the lengthy progress of the FTT proceedings, including repeated appeals to this Tribunal, it has been apparent that the appellants have the resources and the will to take every conceivable opportunity open to them to fight out their disagreements with their leaseholders and the manager in formal legal proceedings, conducted as intensively as any complex commercial litigation. It has not previously been suggested that they have crossed the line into unreasonable conduct, but they have certainly approached the FTT proceedings in a no holds barred and no expense spared spirit, and in doing so have caused the other parties, including private individuals and the tribunal appointed manager (whose costs are met by the leaseholders), to incur huge expense. That is not to say there are not genuine and important issues between the parties, but genuine disputes can be resolved by litigating in a moderate and proportionate manner and need not give rise to the mountain of expense which these proceedings have been generating for years.

In deciding whether it is appropriate to order the appellants to pay the respondents’ costs I therefore bear in mind their approach to the proceedings as a factor in favour of making an order. I bear in mind also that the bulk of the expense on the respondents’ side has fallen on the private individuals, who contribute to the manager’s costs through the service charge as well as bearing their own (where they are members of the leaseholders’ association).

The general rule in tribunals is that costs are not awarded. That rule is designed with typical tribunal proceedings in mind, often involving modest sums and capable of being managed without professional representation. These proceedings are anything but typical and to the extent that the respondents have been put to unnecessary expense by the unreasonable conduct of the appellants in pursuing them, it is fair and just in my judgment that the appellants should bear the expense.

I will therefore make orders in favour of all respondents.