36 Towyn Road, Birmingham, West Midlands, B13 9NA
Condition: Victorian terraced house in very poor condition, lacking cooking facilities, carpets, curtains and white goods, with cracked plaster and non-functioning ground floor lighting, needing extensive renovation.
Evidence considered
- No comparable evidence submitted by either party; tribunal relied on its own inspection and general knowledge of local rental market.
- Tribunal estimated a refurbished market rent of around £925 pcm but applied a substantial discount for poor condition and lack of facilities, concluding no increase from the existing rent was justified.
Tenant submitted evidence: no. Landlord submitted evidence: no.
Tribunal's reasoning
The landlord proposed increasing the rent from £138 to £220 per week for a Victorian terraced house, but the tribunal found the property in very poor condition - lacking a kitchen cooking facility, with no carpets/curtains/white goods, cracked plaster, a non-functioning ground floor lighting circuit, and an awkward third bedroom only accessible through the second. Although the tribunal considered the market rent would have been around £925 pcm if the property were refurbished, in its actual dilapidated state it found the property virtually unlettable in the open market other than to the sitting tenant, and therefore concluded no rent increase was justified. The rent was accordingly left unchanged at £138 per week (approx. £598 pcm) from the date of the landlord's notice.
Read the original decision (PDF, GOV.UK)
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