20 Vine Road, East Molesey, Surrey, KT8 9LB
Condition: Substantial early Victorian town house, fully renovated and in very good to excellent condition with modern fixtures and fittings.
Evidence considered
- Landlord submitted estate agent rental appraisal and rental data (Hamptons), but tribunal gave this limited weight as it was marketing advice not valuation, and one comparable was 15-18 months old
- Landlord's comparable analysis of five properties (£4,000-£25,000 pcm range) averaged to a psf rate; tribunal found equal weighting inappropriate given wide value spread and recalculated using similar-value comparables only
- Landlord's yield-on-capital-value approach rejected as a broad-brush method that can mislead for residential valuation
- Landlord's time-adjustment analysis using RPI index rejected as RPI is not a property-based index and the time period adjusted (over two years) exceeded what the tribunal considered reliable
- Tribunal relied on its own expert knowledge of local rental values to reach the base market rent
Tenant submitted evidence: no. Landlord submitted evidence: yes.
Tribunal's reasoning
The tribunal rejected the landlord's proposed rent, finding flaws in each of the four valuation methods submitted (marketing appraisals, averaged comparables with too wide a value range, a capital value/yield approach, and a time-adjustment using an inappropriate index). Relying instead on its own expert knowledge of local rental values and the evidence in the bundle, the tribunal set a base market rent of £6,500 pcm for the property in good condition, then added £275 pcm to reflect the landlord's contractual obligation to provide a gardener, which was not already included in the base figure, giving a total of £6,775 pcm.
Read the original decision (PDF, GOV.UK)
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