Tribunal Sets Lower Rent for Tenant Based on Property Condition

OUTCOME: Allowed

FIRST-TIER TRIBUNAL

[NAME] CHAMBER ([NAME])

Case Reference : CAM/26UH/MNR/2024/0614

[NAME] : 6 [ADDRESS]

[POSTCODE]

Applicant: [redacted]

Respondent: [redacted]

Type of Application : S.13 Housing Act 1988 Determination of a new rent

Tribunal : Mr [NAME]. [NAME] and venue of Meeting : 17 February 2025

First Tier Tribunal (Eastern)

[ADDRESS] [POSTCODE]

Date of Decision : 17 February 2025

REASONS FOR DECISION

Background

1 The First Tier Tribunal received an application dated 25 October 2024, before the effective start date of the new rent sought, from [NAME], regarding a notice of increase of rent served by the [RESPONDENT], under S.13 of the Housing Act 1988 (the Act).

2 The notice dated 21 October 2024, proposed a new rent of £1200 per calendar month exclusive, with effect from and including 8 December 2024. This rent does not include other services.

3 The tenancy is an assured periodic calendar monthly tenancy which began 8 June 2012 at an initial rent of £750 pcm. A copy was provided.

4 The rent payable up to and including 11 December 2024 was £825 per calendar month and had been fixed in 2018 by agreement for 6 years.

Directions

5 Directions, dated 25 October 2024, for the progression of the case, were issued by Legal [NAME]. Neither party asked for a hearing.

Inspection

6 There was no inspection. The [NAME] is a 2 level semi-detached house dating from around 1930. It has a front rear and side garden. (Google Streetview August 2024). There is off-road parking for up to 4 cars. The house is of traditional construction rendered walls to first floor, fair faced brick to ground floor, with a main hipped, double pitched clay tile roof over. It is set within a rural area, near a small number of similar houses of similar age and construction. The [NAME] appears to have been formerly used as housing for employees of a rural estate.

7 The [NAME] has 2 bedrooms, bathroom/WC; living room, kitchen, WC. There is double glazing and central heating by the [RESPONDENT]. The carpets, curtains, white goods are provided by the [APPELLANT]. The rear passage to the utility room was single glazed. There was no additional thermal insulation to the [NAME].

Tenants’ and [RESPONDENT]’s Representations

8 The [APPELLANT] provided written submissions via the Application Form and the completed standard Reply Form. The kitchen and bathroom were described by the [APPELLANT] to the effect of being functional but, basic. The [APPELLANT] also referred to the basic condition of the house on entry some years earlier. There was damp to the wall of the living room from a leaking pipe. The carpets and other flooring to most rooms were provided by the [APPELLANT] around 2018 in return for a fixed rent at that time for some 6 years.

9 Besides the floor coverings carried out as an obligation, the [APPELLANT] listed a number of repairs and improvements which he had carried out since the start of the tenancy some ten years earlier. These included: installing a solid fuel stove to the living room, replacing the formerly defective back door, new window locks, a stone patio, hard standing to the driveway, some 16No. fence panels after storm damage and landscaping to the gardens.

10 The [APPELLANT] provided a dozen of so colour photographs showing defects to GF WC, the utility room and passageway, the driveway when wet. The [APPELLANT] also mentioned damp to bedroom No.2 and the living room.

11 The [APPELLANT] referred to rents paid on other similar houses very close by in the area being let, in particular the rent at No.[ADDRESS], the other half of the building of which the [NAME] is part. This [NAME] was reported had a rent set at £1250 pcm July 2023 some 18 months before the valuation date. The RPI change for the period showed around a 5% uplift since. However No.5 adjacent was reported by the [APPELLANT] as having a third bedroom, a second bathroom, a modernised kitchen and main bathroom, additional thermal insulation and a air source heat pump rather than the oil fired heating at the [NAME], reducing revenue costs to the [APPELLANT] of heating. There were also some 8No. or so photographs of the house.

12 The [RESPONDENT]’s agent argued that many of these works were completed by the [APPELLANT] to suit their preference and were not required by the [RESPONDENT].

13 The Tribunal is grateful for such information as was provided by both parties in the application and in the standard Reply Forms and supplementary photographs of the [NAME].

Law

14 In accordance with the terms of S.14 of the Act we are required to determine the rent at which we consider the [NAME] might reasonably be expected to let in the open market, by a willing [RESPONDENT], under an assured tenancy, on the same terms as the actual tenancy; ignoring any increase in value attributable to [APPELLANT]’s improvements and any decrease in value due to the [APPELLANT]’s failure to comply with any terms of the tenancy. Thus the [NAME] falls to be valued as it stands; but assuming that the [NAME] to be in a reasonable internal decorative condition.

Decision

15 From the Tribunal’s own general knowledge of market rent levels in rural villages and small settlements around Biggleswade it determines that the subject [NAME] would let on normal Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) terms, for £1100 per calendar month, fully fitted and in good order.

16 From the representations however; the Tribunal found that the [NAME] was in a basic condition internally (aside from the carpets), from the damp walls penetrating or otherwise, a dated kitchen and bathroom and minor accumulating disrepair. For these shortcomings the Tribunal makes a deduction of £150 pcm. The new rent will therefore be £950 pcm with effect from 8 December 2024.

17 Although the [RESPONDENT] is not obliged to charge this rent and may charge a significantly lower rent as a result of their own choice, policy, or governmental regulation; they may not charge more than this figure.

[NAME] 17 February 2025

Rights of appeal

By rule 36(2) of the Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) ([NAME] Chamber) Rules 2013, the tribunal is required to notify the parties about any right of appeal they may have.

If either party is dissatisfied with this decision, they may apply for permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) on any point of law arising from this Decision.

Prior to making such an appeal, an application must be made, in writing, to this Tribunal for permission to appeal. Any such application must be made within 28 days of the issue of this decision to the person making the application (regulation 52 (2) of The Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) ([NAME] Chamber) Rule 2013).

If the application is not made within the 28-day time limit, such application must include a request for an extension of time and the reason for not complying with the 28 day time limit; the tribunal will then look at such reason(s) and decide whether to allow the application for permission to appeal to proceed, despite not being within the time limit.

The application for permission to appeal must identify the decision of the tribunal to which it relates (i.e., give the date, the [NAME], and the case number), state the grounds of appeal and state the result the party making the application is seeking.

If the tribunal refuses to grant permission to appeal, a further application for permission may be made to the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber).