Schedule 8 to the Building Safety Act 2022 ("BSA") sets out provisions that are designed to protect leaseholders where certain criteria are met against some or all of the costs associated with remedying building safety defects.
This appeal related to a First Tier Tribunal ("FTT") decision which originally found that Mr Lehner, a leaseholder, was liable for service charge costs relating to works to remedy building safety defects at his building.
On appeal by Mr Lehner, and via a judgement based on the complicated Schedule 8 regime, the Upper Tribunal ("UT") overturned the FTT decision. It held that Mr Lehner's lease was a "qualifying lease", and that, as the costs which the landlord was seeking to recover related to the remediation of a cladding system, the Schedule 8 protections applied.
In coming to its decision, the UT went through the stages of tenant protections in Schedule 8 (set out in the appendix to the judgment), and the presumptions made about leases within this regime.
For a detailed review of the decision and the UT guidance please see our DACB Construction Newsletter.
This case represents one of the first UT decisions analysing landlord's certificates and the leaseholder protections arising under Schedule 8 of the BSA 2022.
Given the complexity of the certification regime, we anticipate that we will see an increasing number of claims made and subsequent decisions in this area and the industry will, no doubt, gratefully receive any further guidance which might be provided by the Tribunal.
