Desmond Kilcoyne acted for the Appellant landlord successfully appealing the First Tier Tribunal’s decision that the landlord’s chosen method of repair fell below the required standard

In Lambeth v Gniewosz, Desmond Kilcoyne acted for the Appellant landlord successfully appealing the decision of the First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) (FTT). The FTT decided that the method of repair chosen by the landlord to repair a zinc roof (by replacing it with a glass re-inforced plastic roof) fell below the required standard imposed by the repairing covenant; in short, the FTT concluded that the original roof should be replaced with another zinc roof. The Upper Tribunal (UT) upheld the appeal for various reasons, including a failure to give proper reasons. In particular, the FTT had incorrectly approached the standard of repair on either a ‘like for like’, or a comparative, basis; neither of these reflected the applicable test in Proudfoot v Hart (1890) 25 QBD 42. For a summary, see Estates Gazette, 10 October 2020, p.54. For the full judgment, see [2020] UKUT 274 (LC), [2020] 9 WLUK 216

03.11.2020