On 8 April 2002 the appellant was convicted of having murdered the tenant of 5 Fairinsfell, Broxburn, West Lothian whom he lived with. The appellant thereafter sought to purchase the property. This was an appeal against a decision of the Lands Tribunal dated 13 December 2004 on a preliminary issue arising from an application by the appellant to purchase the subjects. The parties had asked the Tribunal to decide whether the forfeiture rule should defeat the application following the conviction of the appellant. In a decision of a single member it determined that it had such a jurisdiction as the Tribunal considered that since an application under section 71 of Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 had to be made by the tenant, it was open to the respondent to plead that the forfeiture rule should be applied.That was the decision appealed against here. There were two issues in the appeal:- (1) whether, regardless of the forfeiture rule, the Tribunal was bound to grant the appellant's application simply because the respondent had failed to serve an offer to sell or a notice of refusal; and (2) if not, whether the Tribunal had jurisdiction to decide whether the rule should be applied.
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