Cases - 87 St George’s Square Management Ltd v Michael Henry Anthony Whiteside
Record details
- Name
- 87 St George’s Square Management Ltd v Michael Henry Anthony Whiteside
- Date
- [2016]
- Citation
- UKUT 0438 (LC)
- Legislation
- Keywords
- Service charges – Costs determined by F-tT – whether costs may subsequently be claimed as a contractual administration charge
- Summary
-
Due to unreasonable behaviour on the part of the respondent tenant, the First-tier Tribunal (F-tT) awarded the appellant landlord some of its costs of service charge proceedings under Rule 13(1)(b) of the Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) (Property Chamber) Rules 2013. The appellant subsequently chose to withdraw its application for costs and instead chose to rely on its contractual right to recover the totality of its costs under the lease.
The respondent applied to the F-tT for a determination as to whether a variable administration charge was payable by him. The F-tT ruled in the respondent’s favour, the appellant appealed.
The Upper tribunal held that where a party had 2 legal routes to the recovery of the same sum, it would not be entitled to recover that sum twice, but there was no reason why it should be required to elect between those routes unless they are inconsistent. In the present case no inconsistency arose.
The F-tT was wrong to decide that its prior decision under Rule 13(1) prohibited the appellant from recovering its costs by relying on its contractual right under the lease.