The respectable charity man who owns the £4m Chelsea knotweed jungle: Full story of ex-councillor behind the £6million property portfolio (and a mummified corpse in the basement)

In a decaying £4million mansion on a well-kept Chelsea street, mice and foxes are constantly seen scurrying through shattered windows, the garden resembles a ‘knotweed forest’ and a mummified body has been found in the basement.

One might assume, as many families on the leafy street did at first, that such a dilapidated house must have been abandoned or the owner’s financial situation was in dire straits.

But the Daily Mail can reveal that former Conservative councilor Nicholas Halbritter, who owns the property, has an enviable London property portfolio worth an estimated £6 million.

As well as the rundown £4 million mansion he owned for 43 years, Mr Halbritter also owned two three-storey terraced townhouses in south-east London; he sold one of these in 2024 for £650,000.

His current home, which has converted properties into flats, is likely to earn him £72,000 a year.

Mr Halbritter, president of the Kensington and Chelsea branch of the Royal British Legion, was described as a ‘disgusting’ landlord who had no duty of care to his tenants.

Between 1982 and 2010, he rented rooms in his Chelsea home in a joint venture with his kleptomaniac mother, Elizabeth.

Picture: The road in Chelsea, which Mr Halbritter has owned for 43 years

Image: Mr Halbritter’s three-storey terraced townhouses in south-east London

Henry Sherwood, founder of The Buying Agents, told the Daily Mail about his property in south-east London: ‘In terms of rent in south-east London you’re probably looking at around £2,000 a month for a two-bed house and probably £1,500 a month for a one-bed house.

‘The property itself would be worth £1.2 million. If you look to the southeast, the yields are better.’

But the condition of the apartments is dire, with many broken windows, a rotting roof and makeshift curtains.

‘The back windows are broken and birds are flying around inside, it’s disgusting,’ a neighbor said.

Neighbors recalled traumatized tenants needing constant comfort after Mr. Halbritter suffered bouts of aggression.

‘They had tenants who needed to come and be consoled. “He’s not a good man,” his neighbor Nik Hoexter told the Daily Mail.

The last person to remain at Mr Halbritter’s Chelsea home was an Irish builder named Frank, whose body was found mummified in the basement in 2010.

Residents said Frank was a regular at a bar on the corner of their road and they raised alarm bells after he stopped coming.

As police climbed onto the property using a ladder from a neighboring garden, they found the bodies of many of them, so decomposed that they were vomiting.

Meanwhile, the police officer who found him was on his first day on the job and was so upset that the neighbors gave him whiskey.

Japanese knotweed turns Nicholas Halbritter’s Chelsea home into a forest

Left untouched for more than a decade, the weed is now sprouting 10 feet over the back wall and spreading into neighbors’ gardens

Image: The rotting roof of Mr Halbritter’s south-east London property

Windows at Mr Halbritter’s south-east London property were smashed or framed

However, the cause of death is unknown and Mr Halbritter was not involved.

Mr Halbritter is thought to have moved in with his mother, Elizabeth, after the death of his father, Sidney. It is believed that he is not married and has no children.

The death of Elizabeth, a convicted thief who stole expensive jumpers, scarves and children’s clothes from Liberty and John Lewis, is believed to have been the trigger for his lack of interest in maintaining his home.

But he can’t delay any longer: over the objection of residents who signed dozens of petitions, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) told Mr Halbritter he must confront long-standing problems at his property.

He issued a Section 215 order against Mr. Halbritter, legally compelling him to pack up the house.

The irony of him overseeing education, arts and children’s services as a county councilor between 2002 and 2006 will certainly not go unnoticed.

As president of the Kensington and Chelsea branch of the Royal British Legion, he is a devoted poppy seller and fundraiser, as well as a devoted member of Brompton Friends Cemetery, where he gives guided tours.

Mr Halbritter, believed to be a former architect, even received an award from the borough mayor for his fundraising efforts for war veterans in 2022. The following year she posed on the steps of 10 Downing Street, where she attended a reception in honor of the Armed Forces.

But despite his praise, he was described as the ‘neighbor from hell’.

Picture: A view of Mr Halbritter’s house in Chelsea showing his neighbour’s rotting garden

Image: Stairs leading down to Mr Halbritter’s often littered Chelsea basement

Mr Halbritter has been at the center of a huge row for years with his Chelsea neighbors, who claim his house is ‘rotting from the inside out’ and that 3m-tall Japanese knotweed in his garden has made their home ‘unsellable’.

Emily Grant, director of invasive plant specialist company Environet, said removing the plant could cost up to £20,000.

Ms Grant told the Daily Mail: ‘This is a classic case of a homeowner with knotweed not taking responsibility and neighbors suffering as a result. Apart from the risk of structural damage, which is more likely when the plant is well established, neighbors will have a legal obligation to declare knotweed when they come to sell it if it is within 3 meters of their boundary.

‘This will certainly affect the attractiveness of their property and the price the buyer is prepared to pay, plus the buyer may find it difficult to obtain a mortgage.

‘As the garden is fully overgrown it needs to be cleared first, which will allow us to detect any hidden patches of knotweed and determine if it has spread across the border to neighboring gardens.

‘The gold standard treatment would be to dig up the entire affected ground to ensure complete removal of knotweed, which would cost around £10,000 – £20,000. A cheaper alternative would be to treat it with herbicide for a period of 5 years, which would cost around £5,000, but this is only a method of control and given how well established it is unlikely to kill the rhizome below ground.

‘Such cases are very rare these days, as most homeowners act quickly when they discover knotweed to preserve the value of their home. But when knotweed is left unmanaged for years, it becomes a nightmare for neighbors and can affect them almost as if it were growing in their own garden.’

Meanwhile, neighbors say the drains have turned the inside of the house into a swamp, making it an ideal breeding ground for mice and foxes that have taken up residence inside. They say the ‘screaming’ of foxes keeps them awake.

Japanese knotweed has invaded Mr Halbritter’s Chelsea mansion, turning it into a ‘jungle’

Knotweed has taken over the backyard. A total of 46 neighbors signed a petition calling on the council to take action

Nik Hoexter added: ‘I’ve lived here for 40 years and he was the first to come here. He was fine for a few years, but then he became increasingly eccentric.

‘Dead mice seem to be showing up and there was a huge fox that the council had to remove. The basement cannot be accessed from the house, it is completely abandoned. It smells even in summer, so you can’t keep the windows open.

‘I’m always worried about the kids breaking in and the basement door never locking. If you try to talk to him he has his head down and attacks.’

Her neighbor across the street, Christine Gambles, said: ‘When we first moved in, it wasn’t like this, there were tenants in the house and they were renting it out on floors.

‘My maid says she doesn’t live there, but she comes by from time to time, even to slam the door in my face.

‘My husband died four years ago and I don’t want to stay here any longer but I can’t sell it because no one can mortgage the house next door because of knotweed, they have to clean it up otherwise I’m totally stuck.

‘Knotweed’ has never been tampered with, just cut, which is illegal. He was fined for non-completion of work.

‘There’s also wildlife living in a house that you wouldn’t live next to a zoo.’