Citation
(1998), "Residential tenancies", Property Management, Vol. 16 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/pm.1998.11316aab.025
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 1998, MCB UP Limited
Residential tenancies
Residential tenancies
R v. London Rent Assessment Panel, ex parte Cadogan Estates Ltd [1997] 33 EG 88
The question of whether the Rent Assessment Panel had jurisdiction to determine the rent payable under an assured tenancy where the statutory Notice of Increase proposed an annual rent in excess of £25,000 per annum was in this case answered in the affirmative.
The property in question was a flat in Cadogan Place, London SW1 and had originally been let on an assured tenancy at the rent of £700 per month, amounting to an equivalent annual rental of £8,400. In 1996 their new landlord (the freehold owner of the property) served Notice of Increase under s. 13 of the Housing Act 1988 proposing a new rent of £3,375 per month equivalent to £40,000 per annum.
The Rent Assessment Panel said that it had no jurisdiction to hear such an application, since by virtue of the References to Rating (Housing) Regulations 1990 (which amended Schedule 1 of the 1988 Act) a residential tenancy where the rent payable for the time being is in excess of £25,000 per annum cannot be an assured tenancy. The landlord, on the other hand, contended that the Rent Assessment Panel did have jurisdiction to hear and determine such an application, but that if the rent level were to be determined at a rate in excess of £25,000 per annum, this would cause the tenancy to cease thereafter to be an assured tenancy.
After considering the various arguments for and against the court accepted the landlords' argument: the alternative said Kay J would imply that Parliament had intended to introduce a "rent cap" for assured tenancies at £25,000 per annum, and there was no reason for inferring such a radical change to the nature of an assured tenancy resulting from the Regulations in question.
As to statutory succession to a secure tenancy on the death of the secure tenant, the Court of Appeal in Newham LAC v. Phillips (1997) The Times 12 November 1997, held that the relevant statutory provisions did not allow for the possibility of a joint tenancy by succession.