Tenant's Appeal Struck Out for Being Late

OUTCOME: Struck Out

1

FIRST-TIER TRIBUNAL PROPERTY CHAMBER (RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY) Case reference : LON/00BH/HNA/2025/0700 Property : 11A, [ADDRESS], [POSTCODE] Applicant: [redacted] Respondent : [redacted] Type of application : Appeal against Financial Penalty paragraph 10 schedule 13A Housing Act 2004 Tribunal member : Judge Tueje Date of Order : 15th January 2026

DECISION REGARIDNG A LATE FINANCIAL PENALTY NOTICE APPEAL

Decision

1. The appeal against the financial penalty dated 24th March 2025 is struck out.

Reasons

2. By a notice dated 24 March 2025, the Respondent notified the Applicant that a financial penalty had been imposed. The notice informed the Applicant of his right to appeal to the First-tier Tribunal within 28 days, starting on the day after the date of the notice.

3. Accordingly, the period for appealing to the First-tier Tribunal expired on 22 April 2025.

4. The notice was addressed to 208 [ADDRESS], [POSTCODE], and the Applicant confirms that he received it.

5. On 26 March 2025, the Applicant emailed the Respondent, purportedly seeking to appeal against the decision to issue the financial penalty notice.

2 6. Subsequently, on 22 May 2025, the Applicant applied to the First-tier Tribunal to appeal against the notice. That appeal was submitted out of time.

7. The Applicant has provided reasons for not submitting the appeal within the prescribed period. In summary, he submits the Respondent has sent correspondence to the subject property and to [COMPANY] 286b [ADDRESS], [POSTCODE]. However, neither the occupiers of the subject property not the accountants have forwarded the correspondence to him, which has caused him difficulty managing the process in a timely manner.

8. The Respondent submits that it is the Applicant’s responsibility to ensure that the local authority has the correct address, and that it made reasonable enquiries to identify the Applicant’s address, using the addresses obtained through those investigations.

9. However, those issues are not directly relevant to the application before the Tribunal. The Applicant confirms that he received the notice dated 24th March 2025. This is supported by his attempted appeal to the Respondent on 26 March 2025.

Accordingly, irrespective of which address the Respondent used, the Applicant was in a position to submit a valid appeal to the First-tier Tribunal within time. Instead, he erroneously submitted his appeal to the local authority.

10. Under rule 6 of the Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) (Property Chamber) Rules 2013, the Tribunal has case management powers, including the power to extend or shorten the time for complying with any rule, practice direction, or direction.

11. This confers a discretion on the Tribunal, which must be exercised having regard to all the circumstances of the case, including the reason why the appeal was submitted late.

12. In this case, I am not satisfied that the reasons given by the Applicant either explain why the appeal was submitted out of time or provide a justification for exercising the Tribunal’s discretion to extend the period for appealing.

13. Accordingly, as the appeal was submitted out of time and the period for appealing has not been extended, the Tribunal does not have jurisdiction to deal with the appeal. The appeal is therefore struck out.

Name: Judge Tueje Date: 15th January 2026