‘Our £3.6m bill for flats too dangerous to live in’

People made homeless by serious fire safety problems in the buildings they live in have been handed a £3.6 million bill for their repairs and maintenance.

Residents of Beech Rise and Willow Rise in Kirkby, Merseyside, were forced to move in July.

Owners of 160 individual flats in the buildings now face bills of around £10,000 each for servicing costs and repairs despite not being able to live in the blocks, and say they feel “trapped” by contracts that make them responsible for almost all problems that arise.

The buildings’ landlord said the residents’ management company, which some of the leaseholders are affiliated with, had “accumulated significant debt” and was now considering taking legal action against it.

The former council blocks were refurbished into “luxury living” flats by developer LPC Living in 2006 and sold for up to £100,000 each.

Over the next 14 years, flat owners had to spend hundreds of thousands of liras in total to fix problems in the buildings.

Buildings suffered from moisture, mold, faulty electrical from water damage, and broken elevators; According to one apartment owner, this meant that a seriously ill tenant had to sleep in his car because he could not climb the stairs.

Dave Hemmings, 72, moved into a rented apartment in August after being forced to move out of his home when the fire department closed the building.

He said a leak in the building had left him without heat and water for several months.

He said he was not in a position to pay the £10,000 he was expected to contribute, adding: “I can’t pay. I couldn’t get it. I put my pension into buying the flat.”

“I don’t have that much money.”

Michael Jones, who paid £95,000 for his flat in 2007, said he and others who owned flats in the buildings were bound by leases requiring them to pay for all repairs and maintenance, including common areas, structural walls, ceilings, floors and lifts.

The father of two said: “The companies that come to us and become landlords do not appear to be responsible for paying anything under these leases.

“We’ve turned our noses up over and over again at the work that now needs to be redone, but it feels like no one needs to do anything else except make money from us.”

He added: “We’ve been through hell over the years. We think they want to put us out and these bills are just an attempt to get us to give the keys back.”

“We should not be asked to foot the bill for years of mismanagement and neglect.”

“The leases we signed up for were designed not for us, but for the multi-millionaires in charge of the properties,” Mr. Jones added.

The buildings are operated through what is known as a “triple” lease structure. There are the individual owners of the apartments, then a housing management company, and above that the landlord – or head lessor.

The residents’ management company, Parklands (Kirkby) Management Company Ltd, consisted of representatives of the head lessor and representatives of some of the leaseholders.

He was responsible for appointing companies to manage and maintain the buildings and collect service fees.

In 2011, the original developer, LPC Living, sold the master lease of the buildings to a firm run by businessman Michael Gubbay, who has a portfolio of hundreds of freeholds and leases across the UK registered with various firms based in the British Virgin Islands.

Mr Gubbay, approached for comment, said Parklands (Kirkby) Management Company Ltd. It appointed companies to manage the blocks on its behalf.

Flat owner Mr Jones, 42, said more than £300,000 was raised during this period to pay for fire doors and other fire safety work, with thousands of pounds of professional management fees added to the mix.

But Mr Jones said the work was of a low standard and had not been completed and the building was in poor condition.

Since 2021, the master lease has been held by a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, owned by millionaire property tycoons Vincent and Robert Tchenguiz, who own thousands of properties and leases in the UK.

Mr Jones and fellow leaseholder Elaine Shaw said they joined the board of Parklands (Kirkby) Management Company Ltd in 2023 in the hope of resolving the buildings’ problems but failed to do so. Some homeowners had already stopped paying their service charges and bills were starting to pile up.

Mr Jones and Ms Shaw resigned from the company earlier this year and lead tenant Rockwell FC100 has since taken control of the buildings and directly appointed another building management firm to manage them.

The land on which the buildings sit is owned by an inactive company called TR Marketing, which is registered for a unit on an industrial estate in Salford and bought the freehold from housing association Livv Housing in 2022.

The BBC was unable to contact the company.

By the time the buildings closed in July, Knowsley Council had spent up to £1 million on security patrols to prevent residents from having to leave their homes.

But this summer, the fire department still rated the building as unsafe and said it should be closed “in the absence of any appropriate plan to address the fire safety deficiencies.”

The fire service did not specify what the problems were in its prohibition notice, and the original developer, LPC Living, told the BBC that it had obtained “all necessary approvals and certificates” when renovating the buildings in 2006.

The bill, sent to flat owners this month, included part of the expected £600,000 cost to replace broken lifts and around £220,000 for fire safety works such as replacing fire doors and ensuring the building has suitable firebreaks.

The cost of “improvements” to the fire alarm system, paid for by a £40,000 government grant in 2021, is expected to be around £100,000.

Knowsley Council leader Graham Morgan said: “What is the benefit of residents who have kept their service charge payments up to date and do not want to move now being asked to pay again and no longer reside there?”

He added: “I would encourage residents to seek legal advice on any obligations they may have under their lease.

“The council will also support residents and join them in calling on the government to intervene, identify those responsible for the lack of repairs and maintenance and ensure the repairs needed are delivered at the expense of those truly responsible.”

A spokesman for Estates & Management (E&M), the agent for lead tenant Rockwell FC100, said the situation was “disappointing”.

They added that the company “had no choice but to take over management of the building from Parklands (Kirkby) Management Company Ltd”; They said the company had “accumulated significant amounts of debt to suppliers and failed to collect service charge money from a large number of homeowners, all of which has led to the current situation.”

The spokesman added: “Significant work now needs to be done to deal with the management of the premises and try to resolve the issues raised by the fire service in its ban notices.

“We are investigating whether it would be possible to take legal action against RMC, given that until recently they were responsible for the management of the buildings.

“We are not a property development company and our sole focus is on moving forward with appropriate works. Regular updates will be provided to residents.”

A spokesman for current building management firm Lambert Smith Hampton, appointed by E&M, said any charges would be reviewed against “exemptions from the Building Safety Act 2022” before “any costs are imposed on leaseholders”.