First-tier Tribunal Reduces Rent Due to Fire Safety and Construction Works

OUTCOME: Allowed

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FIRST-TIER TRIBUNAL PROPERTY CHAMBER (RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY) Case reference : LON/00AM/MNR/2025/0725 LON/00AM/MNR/2025/0779 Tenant : [APPELLANT] [NAME] (Flat 37) [APPELLANT] [NAME] (Flat 40) Representation

In Person Landlord : [COMPANY]

[NAME] : 37 and 40 [ADDRESS] [POSTCODE] Tribunal : Judge Adrian Jack, Tribunal Member [NAME] of Decision

29th September 2025

DECISION

Background and procedural

1. [NAME] was at all material times until 27th July 2025 a tenant of Flat 37 on the tenth floor of [ADDRESS] [POSTCODE]. [NAME] was at all material times and continues to be a tenant of Flat 40, also on the tenth floor of Archer Tower. [COMPANY], the trading name of [COMPANY], is their landlord.

2. On 27th February 2025 the landlord served notices in the prescribed form seeking to increase with effect from 1st April 2025 [NAME]’s rent from £1,292.60 per month to £1,327.50 per month and Ms [NAME] rent from

2 £1,286.59 per month to £1,321.33 per month. Both tenants referred the proposed rent increases to this Tribunal for determination.

3. The Tribunal held a hearing on the morning of 25th September 2025. The tenants appeared in person. The landlord appeared by Mr [RESPONDENT]. The Tribunal subsequently inspected Archer Tower. We inspected the interior of Flat 40, but because the tenant had moved out of Flat 37, we were only able to see the outside of that flat.

4. On our inspection the scaffolding (which it was agreed was still in place on 1st April 2025 and which we saw in the photographs provided) had been removed. However, works to remedy the cladding in the lower part of the building were still in progress with workmen on scaffolding towers. The cladding works had been completed to the walls on the third to thirteenth floors of the building.

The tenants’ complaint

5. The tenants gave evidence. Their complaints are these (correcting some grammatical infelicities):

“1. communal areas… General poor state of communal lobby, dirty walls, chipped paintwork and untidy.

2. external structure… whilst the fire remedial works were necessary, the length of time these have been underway and the manner in which they are executed being unreasonable (the works commenced in June 2023 and take place six days per week, Mon-Sat; with the associated noise pollution, dust, lack of privacy, loss of natural light, vermin attracted by the accumulated refuse at the bottom of the scaffolding structure and intermittent closure of either entrance to the building). We have now been informed the remedial work likely to continue until June 2025. During this time, we have faced significant noise disturbances and lack of natural light and limited access to the balcony.

3. fire safety system- faulty system posing health and safety hazard with repeated instances of being triggered in error leading to evacuation of several dozen of [the] flats and attendance of fire brigade.

4. lifts- malfunctioning lifts (impacting significantly on the accessibility of a tenth floor flat) with one or both lifts being out of order regularly.

5. installations of the supply of gas and heating- ongoing malfunctioning of the communal system; tenants having no choice but to enter into [a] contract with [a] gas supplier not regulated by Ofgem, imposing excessive charges outside of the energy price cap.”

3 The landlord’s case 6. Mr [COUNSEL] who appeared for the landlord said that the landlord, as a social housing provider, always charged rents at 20 per cent below the market value. He accepted that the scaffolding had been erected in 2023. He said that the contractor for the cladding works had entered insolvency shortly after starting works and this had led to a delay which he said was for about six months from August/September 2023 until the summer of 2024. He did not dispute the tenants’ case that the disturbance from the scaffolding was worst in the period July 2024 to July 2025 with workmen operating six days a week from 8am onwards, but said the works were necessary after the Grenfell Tower disaster. The landlord should not be penalised for carrying out safety works, he submitted.

7. He did not dispute that there had been two fires in flats in the building, one in 2023 and one after 1st April 2025. In each case the fire alarms had not operated. The [NAME] provided a waking watch service, so the fires were identified. When the fires were found, since there was no alarm, he had to go around each flat individually to ensure that the tenants evacuated the building.

8. He said the heating and hot water system was provided centrally for the block. This was, he said, cheaper than each tenant providing the heating and hot water for individual flats. The lifts were fixed under contract with a specialist company.

9. He said that the tenants each owed arrears of rent and submitted that the Tribunal should take that fact into account when determining the rent.

Our conclusions

10. We have to consider what the market rent was as at 1st April 2025: see section 14(1)(b) of the Housing Act 1988.

11. In doing so, we have to ignore any consideration of the personal circumstances of the tenants. Thus the allegation that the tenants were in arrears with their rent is in our judgment irrelevant. The tenants, it is right to record, disputed that there were any arrears, except insofar as they had not paid the increased rent demanded by the landlord. We do not need to resolve this issue, since it is irrelevant to our determination.

12. In our judgment, the key factors here are the fire safety of the building at the relevant time and the disruption caused by the works. As to fire safety, we saw on our inspection that the fire alarm system was showing faults. As noted above, it was common ground that there was a need for a waking watch. When the two fires occurred no fire alarm sounded. The [NAME] had to go to each of the fifty flats in the block over thirteen floors to ensure the building was evacuated.

13. In addition, the scaffolding and associated cladding works very substantially reduced the tenants’ enjoyment of their flats.

4

14. The other matters are of lesser importance. The common parts required repainting, but this was comparatively minor. There were lift breakdowns, but these seem to have been fixed reasonably quickly. There were no cases where both lifts had broken down simultaneously. We were not shown bills in respect of the central heating system. Such systems can be effective. In the absence of a full analysis of the costs, we consider this as a neutral item in evaluating a market rent.

15. The scaffolding, ongoing works and the fire safety issues, however, have in our judgment a major impact on the market rent for the flats as at 1st April 2025. The tenants did not argue that the rent should be less than £1,292.60 per month in Ms [NAME] case and £1,286.59 per month in Ms [NAME] case. In our judgment, the market rent is not higher than those figures.

16. The evidence of Mr [NAME] that the new proposed rent is twenty percent less than the market rent would be correct, were it not for the scaffolding, ongoing works and fire safety issues. These features, however, mean that we do not accept Mr [NAME] evidence when we determine the market rent payable as at 1st April 2025.

DETERMINATION

We determine the rent from 1st April 2025 as £1,292.60 per month in respect of Flat 37 (Ms [NAME] flat) and £1,286.59 per month in respect of Flat 40 ([NAME]’s flat).

Signed: Judge Adrian Jack

Date: 29th September 2025

LEGISLATION: HOUSING ACT 1988 13 Increases of rent under assured periodic tenancies. (1) This section applies to— (a) a statutory periodic tenancy other than one which, by virtue of paragraph 11 or paragraph 12 in Part I of Schedule 1 to this Act, cannot for the time being be an assured tenancy; and (b) any other periodic tenancy which is an assured tenancy, other than one in relation to which there is a provision, for the time being binding on the tenant, under which the rent for a particular period of the tenancy will or may be greater than the rent for an earlier period. (2) For the purpose of securing an increase in the rent under a tenancy to which this section applies, the landlord may serve on the tenant a notice in the prescribed form proposing a new rent to take effect at the beginning of a new period of the tenancy specified in the notice, being a period beginning not earlier than— (a) the minimum period after the date of the service of the notice; and

5 (b) except in the case of a statutory periodic tenancy— (i) in the case of an assured agricultural occupancy, the first anniversary of the date on which the first period of the tenancy began; (ii) in any other case, on the date that falls 52 weeks after the date on which the first period of the tenancy began; and (c) if the rent under the tenancy has previously been increased by virtue of a notice under this subsection or a determination under section 14 below— (i) in the case of an assured agricultural occupancy, the first anniversary of the date on which the increased rent took effect; (ii) in any other case, the appropriate date. (3) The minimum period referred to in subsection (2) above is— (a) in the case of a yearly tenancy, six months; (b) in the case of a tenancy where the period is less than a month, one month; and (c) in any other case, a period equal to the period of the tenancy. (3A) The appropriate date referred to in subsection (2)(c)(ii) above is— (a) in a case to which subsection (3B) below applies, the date that falls 53 weeks after the date on which the increased rent took effect; (b) in any other case, the date that falls 52 weeks after the date on which the increased rent took effect. (3B) This subsection applies where— (a) the rent under the tenancy has been increased by virtue of a notice under this section or a determination under section 14 below on at least one occasion after the coming into force of the Regulatory Reform (Assured Periodic Tenancies)(Rent Increases) Order 2003; and (b) the fifty-third week after the date on which the last such increase took effect begins more than six days before the anniversary of the date on which the first such increase took effect. (4) Where a notice is served under subsection (2) above, a new rent specified in the notice shall take effect as mentioned in the notice unless, before the beginning of the new period specified in the notice,— (a) the tenant by an application in the prescribed form refers the notice to the appropriate tribunal; or (b) the landlord and the tenant agree on a variation of the rent which is different from that proposed in the notice or agree that the rent should not be varied. (5) Nothing in this section (or in section 14 below) affects the right of the landlord and the tenant under an assured tenancy to vary by agreement any term of the tenancy (including a term relating to rent).

14 Determination of rent by tribunal

6 (1) Where, under subsection (4)(a) of section 13 above, a tenant refers to the appropriate tribunal a notice under subsection (2) of that section, the appropriate tribunal shall determine the rent at which, subject to subsections (2) and (4) below, the appropriate tribunal consider that the dwelling-house concerned might reasonably be expected to be let in the open market by a [NAME] under an assured tenancy— (a) which is a periodic tenancy having the same periods as those of the tenancy to which the notice relates; (b) which begins at the beginning of the new period specified in the notice; (c) the terms of which (other than relating to the amount of the rent) are the same as those of the tenancy to which the notice relates; and (d) in respect of which the same notices, if any, have been given under any of Grounds 1 to 5 of Schedule 2 to this Act, as have been given (or have effect as if given) in relation to the tenancy to which the notice relates. (2) In making a determination under this section, there shall be disregarded— (a) any effect on the rent attributable to the granting of a tenancy to a sitting tenant; (b) any increase in the value of the dwelling-house attributable to a relevant improvement carried out by a person who at the time it was carried out was the tenant, if the improvement— (i) was carried out otherwise than in pursuance of an obligation to his immediate landlord, or (ii) was carried out pursuant to an obligation to his immediate landlord being an obligation which did not relate to the specific improvement concerned but arose by reference to consent given to the carrying out of that improvement; and (c) any reduction in the value of the dwelling-house attributable to a failure by the tenant to comply with any terms of the tenancy. (3) For the purposes of subsection (2)(b) above, in relation to a notice which is referred by a tenant as mentioned in subsection (1) above, an improvement is a relevant improvement if either it was carried out during the tenancy to which the notice relates or the following conditions are satisfied, namely— (a) that it was carried out not more than twenty-one years before the date of service of the notice; and (b) that, at all times during the period beginning when the improvement was carried out and ending on the date of service of the notice, the dwelling- house has been let under an assured tenancy; and

7 (c) that, on the coming to an end of an assured tenancy at any time during that period, the tenant (or, in the case of [NAME], at least one of them) did not quit. (3A) and (3B) [Omitted] (4) In this section “rent” does not include any service charge, within the meaning of section 18 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, but, subject to that, includes any sums payable by the tenant to the landlord on account of the use of furniture, in respect of council tax or for any of the matters referred to in subsection (1)(a) of that section, whether or not those sums are separate from the sums payable for the occupation of the dwelling-house concerned or are payable under separate agreements. (5) Where any rates in respect of the dwelling-house concerned are borne by the landlord or a superior landlord, the appropriate tribunal shall make their determination under this section as if the rates were not so borne. (6) [Omitted] (7) Where a notice under section 13(2) above has been referred to the appropriate tribunal, then, unless the landlord and the tenant otherwise agree, the rent determined by the appropriate tribunal (subject, in a case where subsection (5) above applies, to the addition of the appropriate amount in respect of rates) shall be the rent under the tenancy with effect from the beginning of the new period specified in the notice or, if it appears to the appropriate tribunal that that would cause undue hardship to the tenant, with effect from such later date (not being later than the date the rent is determined) as the appropriate tribunal may direct. (8) Nothing in this section requires the appropriate tribunal to continue with their determination of a rent for a dwelling-house if the landlord and tenant give notice in writing that they no longer require such a determination or if the tenancy has come to an end. (9) This section shall apply in relation to an assured shorthold tenancy as if in subsection (1) the reference to an assured tenancy were a reference to an assured shorthold tenancy.