Expert Evidence

The First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) is the mechanism of last resort for most Leasehold Reform and associated valuation disputes. In the vast majority of cases, sensible and pragmatic advice will prevail and freeholders alike will settle terms without recourse to the third party adjudication.

Where that is not possible, our team are able to provide Expert Evidence to the Tribunal with experience on complex enfranchisement cases, lease extensions, and when there are absent landlords. We provide Expert Evidence predominantly in the Southern and London Tribunal system.

In many relatively low-value cases, the cost of taking a matter to the FTT can significantly outweigh any potential savings or additional premium to the leaseholder or freeholder respectively and very careful consideration should be given before utilising the services of the First Tier Tribunal.

In cases where the premium and terms cannot be resolved within the statutory timescales, the leaseholder must apply to the Tribunal, failing which the leaseholders’ notice is deemed to have been withdrawn and the matter will be struck out. An application to the Tribunal should be made within 6 months of the date of the Section 45 Counter Notice in the case of a statutory lease extension and it is imperative for client’s legal advisors to monitor the deadline dates for application in order to protect the leaseholder’s position.

The Expert Evidence provided to a Tribunal is an objective and unbiased assessment to help the Tribunal reach a fair decision. Prior to any application, our team are able to provide an assessment of the merits of making an application or proceeding to a hearing based on the potential risk versus reward associated with any application. An application to a Tribunal, together with the work associated with the presentation of Expert Evidence and attendance at a hearing can significantly increase the costs of the lease extension or enfranchisement process in terms of professional fees, therefore careful consideration should be given to the additional costs compared with the potential savings.

A number of the more prominent recent First Tier Tribunal and Upper Property Tribunal decisions can be seen on our FTT and UT decisions page. If you are considering an application to the Tribunal, we would be happy to discuss the merits of this with you on a no-obligation basis and provide an estimate of our fees for providing Expert Evidence.