Clearly not an area for payment by direct debit!
Further restrictions on the jurisdiction of LVTs have been identified in the unreported decision of Tomlinson J in Wandsworth London Borough Council v Manuel (18 May 2001), now unearthed and dusted down by Sandi Murdoch in
Q Our tenant’s association is taking the owner of the block to the leasehold valuation tribunal, where we shall dispute the reasonableness of a number of items included in the service charge demands. To the extent that we succeed, will the tribunal have power to order refunds of past payments unreasonably demanded?
A Unfortunately not. Such claims can be handled only by the court, which will have to wrestle with a somewhat underdeveloped law of restitution. Worse still, the tribunal has no jurisdiction to pronounce on the reasonableness of a charge that has in fact been paid: see R (on the application of Daejan) v London Leasehold Valuation Tribunal [2001] EWCA Civ 1095; [2001] 43 EG 187, assigning a literal meaning to the words “is alleged to be payable”.
Clearly not an area for payment by direct debit!
Further restrictions on the jurisdiction of LVTs have been identified in the unreported decision of Tomlinson J in Wandsworth London Borough Council v Manuel (18 May 2001), now unearthed and dusted down by Sandi Murdoch in A second-class power, Estates Gazette 24 August 2002, p83.
