3 & 3A Bere Lane, Glastonbury, Somerset, BA6 8BD
Condition: Semi-detached house with annex requiring general maintenance and modernisation, with damp/mould issues, basic dated bathrooms and kitchen, and only partial electric heating.
Evidence considered
- Tenant's single comparable in Nailsea (~35 miles away) given limited weight due to lack of locality.
- Landlord's five sale particulars disregarded as sales prices are not relevant to rental value.
- Landlord's desktop estate agent appraisal (valuing at £2,700pcm) given no weight as it was based on inaccurate features (gas central heating, extra bathroom, garage) later admitted as errors, and was a marketing-driven desk valuation without inspection.
- Tribunal relied on its own expert knowledge to determine open market rent of £2,400pcm before condition-based deductions.
Tenant submitted evidence: yes. Landlord submitted evidence: yes.
Tribunal's reasoning
With no reliable comparable evidence from either side, the Tribunal used its own expert knowledge to set a hypothetical open market rent of £2,400 pcm for the property in good tenantable condition, reflecting its location near a busy road but with a large rear garden. It then applied a 14% deduction to reflect disrepair, dated bathrooms/kitchen, partial electric heating, tenant-provided white goods and lack of curtains, while attributing some mould to tenant lifestyle and lack of notified disrepair, arriving at £2,064 pcm rounded to £2,060 pcm, effective from the date in the landlord's notice.
Read the original decision (PDF, GOV.UK)
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