The landlords at Atlantic Bays alleged that the leaseholders represented by the tenants association, the PCTA had committed fraud during the Phillips & Goddard v Francis & Francis litigation in 2009. The PCTA applied for the application to be struck out and won on all counts.

HHJ Cotter ruled that

1. The claim was out of time – allegations of this sort have a time limit of 6 years and the landlords had knowledge of the allegations in 2012.
2. The landlord elected during proceedings in what was known as Part 2 not to reopen the Part 1 proceedings on the basis of new evidence.
3. The landlords entered into a Consent Order in 2013 settling charges for 2008/9 and referring any outstanding charges to the First tier Tribunal and could not now go behind this order.
4. The application was an abuse of court time and had little chance of succeeding.