Costs
Hood v Southern Land Securities Ltd and another company [2025] UKUT 378 (LC)
The UK Upper Tribunal, Lands Chamber (UT) dismissed Mr Hood’s appeal against a costs order made by the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) in land registration proceedings. The FTT had awarded Mr Hood costs up to 5 February 2025 but ordered him to pay his landlords’ costs of £10,181 incurred after that date. The costs order was made on the basis that Mr Hood had unreasonably refused the landlords’ settlement offer, which would have granted him a lease of the loft space at a peppercorn rent. The UT found that the outcome Mr Hood achieved at the FTT hearing (an expanded demise under his existing lease) was not better than what had been offered in settlement. His refusal to accept the offer unless the landlords proved they had not illegally acquired the freehold was unreasonable, as this matter was extraneous to the proceedings. The UT rejected the respondents’ application for costs of the appeal, noting that costs are not normally awarded in cases assigned to the written representations procedure.
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