James Driscoll summarises the key developments in the law relating to residential long leases in the past year
For the two million or so households who own leasehold flats, disputes over service charges and other criticisms of the general quality of management of a block of flats are all too common. These days, almost all such disputes are resolved in what is commonly known as the leasehold valuation tribunal. A key development this year was the merger of the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal (LVT), the rent assessment committee, the residential property tribunal, the Adjudicator for the Land Registry and the Agricultural Tribunal into a new First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) with new procedural rules, the Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) (Property Chamber) Rules 2013 (with appeals to the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber)).
Service charges
As always, there have been several decisions of the courts and the tribunal to consider. The most significant decision this year was that of the Supreme Court in Daejan Investments v Benson [2013] UKSC 14, [2013] 2 All ER 375. In a controversial decision, a divided court decided that breach of the
