These Regulations amend the Rent Assessment Committee (England and Wales) (Leasehold Valuation Tribunal) Regulations 1993 which deal with the procedure of leasehold valuation tribunals. The amendments are in consequence of new jurisdiction conferred on leasehold valuation tribunals in amendments to the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 and the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 made by the Housing Act 1996. The Regulations also make consequential amendments to the Rent Assessment Committees (England and Wales) Regulations 1971. The new jurisdiction relates to determination of matters relating to:

• service charges under sections 19(2A) and (2B) and 20C of, and paragraph 8 of Schedule 8 to, the 1985 Act (including cases where the court transfers proceedings to a leasehold valuation tribunal); and

• appointment of managers under Part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987.

The main amendments to the 1993 Regulations are the insertion of regulations 4A to 4H (by regulation 5) and regulations 11A and 11B (by regulation 7) which deal with the following matters:

• notice of applications to be given by a tribunal (regulation 4A);

• power for a tribunal to dismiss an application which the tribunal considers frivolous, vexatious or otherwise an abuse of process (regulation 4B);

• provision for a tribunal to hear and determine a representative application where numerous applications have been made to the tribunal concerning the same or substantially the same matters (regulation 4C);

• provisions for applications which are made after the determination of the representative application on the same or similar matter where the applicant was given notice of the proposal to determine a representative application (regulation 4D);

• provisions for applications which are made after the determination of the representative application on the same or similar matters where the applicant was not given notice of the proposal to determine a representative application (regulation 4E);

• joining parties to an application (regulation 4F);

• pre-trial reviews (regulation 4G);

• consequences of non-payment of a fee (regulation 4H);

• orders requiring a party to proceedings to reimburse fees paid by another party (regulation 11A);

• leave to appeal against a decision of a tribunal to the Lands Tribunal (regulation 11B).

Regulation 8 makes provision for service where the whereabouts of the person to be served is unknown.

The 1971 Regulations are amended to exclude from their operation the new jurisdiction conferred on leasehold valuation tribunals since the 1993 Regulations are to apply in such cases (regulation 9).