The relative quality of evidence is not often a subject of dispute, but a recent appeal against a decision on lease premiums appropriate for properties in the Midlands sheds some light on the court's view in such cases.
The argument concerned whether a survey of Leasehold Valuation Tribunal (LVT) decisions in the Midlands, using data extracted from a graph covering LVT decisions throughout England over a period of 13 years (the ‘LEASE graph’), was to be preferred to a survey prepared by RICS in 2009 which, although of wide geographical coverage, drew heavily on the South East and London.
On appeal, the court ruled that the premiums should be determined using the LEASE graph, but based on the whole of the data, not just the data relating to the Midlands. The 'Midlands only' data varied significantly with the data as a whole and the sample was too small to be regarded as properly representative.