Southern Land Securities Ltd v Gisele Catherine Rettie & Anor

Facts

75 Gunterstone Road is a Victorian villa converted into eight flats, two of which — Flats A and B — are in the basement and had suffered damp penetration through their below-ground walls. In 2021 the landlord, Southern Land Securities Ltd, obtained a building surveyor's advice recommending remedial works; the work eventually carried out involved hacking off plaster back to the brick, injecting a chemical damp proof course, applying waterproof render internally and repointing externally, at a cost of some £85,000. All eight flats are held on long leases in the same form, described by the First-tier Tribunal as "eggshell leases", the structure remaining in the landlord's possession. Ms Rettie holds Flat 4 and Mr Li the First Floor Rear Flat. The occupants of the basement flats were rehoused and their belongings removed and stored while the works were done, at a cost said by Ms Rettie to be £16,397. The respondents applied to the First-tier Tribunal under section 27A of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. The FTT rejected their objections to the works themselves but held them not liable to contribute to the accommodation and storage costs, both in principle and as costs not reasonably incurred. The landlord appealed with the permission of the Upper Tribunal.