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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The application was an abuse of court time and had little chance of succeeding.