Legal experts have warned landlords to be wary of using AI for advice amid increasing reports of tribunal judges finding inaccuracies in their submissions.

Landlord Law’s Tessa Shepperson says many cases are being reported where claimants and their lawyers are misled by false information provided by AI tools. Tenants look up advice on ChatGPT and are then annoyed when lawyers, landlords and letting agents try to explain that the information is wrong.

The practice is becoming more common with landlords too, says Shepperson. Sometimes this false information is used in court proceedings, where it is inevitably found out. “There have been many cases when its advice has been proven to be wrong, and the outcome for those relying on it has not been good,” she says.

Paying

Shepperson tells LandlordZONE: “People don’t like paying for advice, they’ll try ChatGPT instead, but AI is notorious for making things up. It relies on what other people have written, and these people aren’t always lawyers so it’s not surprising there are inaccuracies. I’ve had AI tell me that it’s alright to have rent review increases after 1^st May.”

Giles Peaker, lawyer at Anthony Gold, says that as issues with the use of LLM generative AI in submissions continue to arise, it’s not surprising that the property tribunal has had its share of such problems. “What is perhaps more surprising is that it seems to have been largely on the part of landlord respondents, rather than leaseholder applicants,” says Peaker.

Costs

He cites a freeholder’s dispute about insurance costs where the responded submitted a Supreme Court decision which was not an authority for the point on which it was cited, and a Court of Appeal decision which was on a wholly different issue, after an incorrect citation was given for that case as an Upper Tribunal decision.

Peaker reports that the severity of the tribunal’s response to false AI generated submissions appears to be increasing.

“At a tribunal when using AI, you may get short shrift if you’re basing your case on something like that – ignorance isn’t an excuse,” adds Shepperson.

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