23 Hearne Road, Chiswick, London, W4 3NJ
Condition: Unmodernised three-bedroom terraced house with basic/dated kitchen and bathroom, no gas central heating, no white goods, though double glazed windows installed in 2016.
Evidence considered
- Landlord's comparable: three-bedroom modernised terraced house (1,091 sq ft) nearby at £4,000 pcm (£923/week), let agreed - treated as superior but useful as a market benchmark.
- Landlord's comparable: four-bedroom modernised terraced house nearby at £4,199 pcm (£969/week), let agreed - also treated as superior but useful as a benchmark.
- Tribunal used its own expert knowledge to set a notional 'as modernised' rent of £2,800 pcm, then deducted £540 total for tenant's internal decoration responsibility, basic kitchen, basic bathroom, no white goods, and no gas central heating, giving £2,260 pcm.
- Registered fair rent of £407.50/week submitted by tenant given no weight, as fair rents are assessed on a different statutory basis disregarding scarcity and subject to a statutory cap.
Tenant submitted evidence: no. Landlord submitted evidence: yes.
Tribunal's reasoning
The tribunal rejected direct reliance on the landlord's two comparables as they were materially superior (modernised, larger or with extra facilities) but used them, together with its own market knowledge, to establish a notional rent of £2,800 pcm for the property if modernised. It then deducted a total of £540 pcm to reflect the tenant's responsibility for internal decoration, the dated kitchen and bathroom, absence of white goods, and absence of gas central heating, arriving at £2,260 pcm (£521/week), which matched the landlord's proposed rent. The tenant's registered fair rent and personal/financial circumstances were held irrelevant to the market rent determination, though the tenant's hardship was accepted and used to delay the effective date of the new rent to the date of decision rather than the notice date.
Read the original decision (PDF, GOV.UK)
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