Leasehold valuation tribunal

A leasehold valuation tribunal (LVT) was a statutory tribunal in England which determined various types of landlord and tenant dispute involving residential property in the private sector. An LVT consisted of a panel of three; one with a background in property law (generally a solicitor); one with a background in property valuation generally a qualified surveyor; and a layman, although some decisions of an LVT were decided by a single member. LVTs were non-departmental public bodies.

The leasehold valuation tribunals were abolished under The Transfer of Tribunal Functions Order 2013 and their functions were transferred to the newly created First-Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) with effect from 1 July 2013.

Leasehold valuation tribunals had a number of jurisdictions including:

Initially created by the Housing Act 1980 which transferred jurisdiction from the Lands Tribunal (a superior tribunal of England and Wales), functions were expanded by the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 and the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002.

One of the earliest functions of the LVT was to determine disputes concerning the extension of leases.

Historically, when a lease ran out the property held there under would revert to the possession of the landlord/freeholder. In this case, the job of the leasehold valuation tribunal is to hear evidence from both sides as to what the long leasehold value of such a property would be and to determine what proportions of value of the said property should rightfully be ascribed to leaseholder and the freeholder under the legislation. Generally such evidence is given by an expert witness for each side who will argue that a particular value is more applicable based on an analysis of recent sales of comparable properties around the date that the Leasehold Enfranchisement Notice was served.

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