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Harry Petsas in front of 30-40 Grafton Way |
Victory in ‘£23,000’ battle
Leaseholders handed huge flats repair bills end up paying just £250
WHEN the council’s contractors had finished refurbishing 30-40 Grafton Way, leaseholders who owned two-bedroom flats in the block were hit by bills for £23,000 each.
After a four-year legal battle during which the council were slammed for incompetence and ignoring leaseholders’ views, all 37 will pay just £250, while the council – and ultimately the taxpayer – picks up an £800,000 tab.
Harry Petsas, who owns a flat in the block with his daughter, led the fight through the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal (LVT), which settles disputes
He said: “The building was in a terrible state for 35 years, it was never refurbished.
“They had to change everything. We wanted to be present when they discussed the contracts, and we dearly wanted to be there when the council discussed the estimates, which were clearly going to affect us. We thought that they would overpay and not pay any attention to quality. We were right.”
It was this suspicion which led Mr Petsas to demand better consultation over the £1.8 million of painting, electrical, and lift replacement works being done at their 137-flat Bloomsbury block.
Last month the LVT emphatically stated that the council had failed to consult them.
The leaseholders, who asked to see details of the contract awarded to Mansell’s, were never able to do so, and instead the council sent them invitations to meetings that were never held and details of a consultation that had nothing to do with Grafton Way.
The judgment by President of the Lands Tribunal, George Bartlett QC, concluded: “What the leaseholders were not provided with was the basic information about the tenders.”
Because the consultation was flawed, the law meant that the leaseholders could only be charged a statutory £250 per household. The balance, originally quoted by the council as nearly £800,000, will be borne by the housing department.
“This makes a substantial point to all leaseholders,” said Dr Peter Wright, who is chairman of the Camden Leaseholders’ Forum. “There is an enormous amount of work needed to get a group of people to fight through a case like this. But here we have a group who have done it, and gained out of it, and made the point that a landlord has to do these things properly.”
Perhaps strangely, the mood at Grafton Way is far from one of triumph. Mr Petsas says he spent thousands of hours working on the case, and remains out of pocket for legal bills. The new paintwork in the block started peeling long before the legal arguments were heard out.
A Camden Council spokesman said yesterday: “We are committed to ensuring that leaseholders pay a reasonable share for works benefiting their property and have strengthened our procedures to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.” |
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