Timothy Powell

Tim Powell is the London Regional Judge of the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) Residential Property. He manages a team of six full-time judges, 40 part-time judges and 40 non-legal professional tribunal members. The tribunal is a specialist forum in England which decides a very wide range of disputes about residential property. Amongst other things, the tribunal deals with disputes between apartment owners (leaseholders) and building owners (freeholders) about service charges, breaches of covenant and the appointment of independent managers. The tribunal also fixes annual rent increases for short-term tenants, values property, hears appeals against local authority enforcement action relating to housing standards and the licensing of houses in multiple occupation, and decides applications by tenants for rent repayment orders. Following the Grenfell Tower disaster in 2017, when 72 people lost their lives in a fire in a block of flats in West London, the tribunal plays an important role in making remediation orders requiring developers and building owners to remove flammable cladding from high-rise buildings. As well as being a judge who hears and decides cases, Tim has been a trained mediator for more than 15 years. He was involved in developing the tribunal’s free mediation service in London and is an active judicial mediator. He has been involved in training tribunal mediators across England and is currently developing a new conciliation service in London. He is a member of GEMME, the European Judges Group for Mediation.