News from the Residential Property Investor, the bi-monthly magazine for RLA members other artilces from the June / July 1999 issue RPI news archive

Landlord is unable to recover costs - June / July 1999

A landlord has failed to overturn an earlier judgement that it was not entitled to reclaim the cost of work carried out without proper notice.
The Court of Appeal decision, in the case of Martin v Maryland Estates Ltd; Seale v Maryland Estates Ltd concerned work to a block of flats owned by Maryland Estates. Proper notice (under section 20 of the Landlords and Tenant Act 1985) was given to leasehold tenants together with estimates.
The tenants said they would prefer the work to be put off since they were acquiring the freehold and would undertake necessary repairs and maintenance at a later date. However, the landlord went ahead anyway.
And when, during the course of this work, the need for more was discovered, the landlord went ahead with this too - but without giving notice.
The Court of Appeal agreed with a lower court that, notwithstanding the attitude of the tenants, Maryland could not simply disregard the requirement to give notice (of work which resulted in a total bill almost double the original estimate). Accordingly the landlord could not recover the cost of the additional work.
 

other artilces from the June / July 1999 issue

• Bottom line reality
• In brief
• New calls for reform of housing benefit
• Most shared houses will be regulated
• Landlord is unable to recover costs
• Manchester has lowest prices