Chelsea goalkeeping legend Carlo Cudicini in court over ban on using sun terrace at £3m London home
Premier League-winning former Chelsea goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini is locked in a court fight after being banned from using the sun terrace outside his £3million London home.
Mr Cudicini, 52, who made 216 appearances for Chelsea between 1999 and 2009, is being sued by Haya Property Ltd, the freeholder of his multimillion-pound mews house in Kensington, which he said began when he complained about the company installing noisy air conditioning units near his bedroom window.
The house, which the Blues legend bought for £1.75 million in 2006 at the height of his Premier League career, is just meters from Hyde Park and the Royal Albert Hall and less than three kilometers from Chelsea FC’s home at Stamford Bridge, where he works as talent manager and the club’s “itinerary”.
But Milan-born Mr Cudicini, who was part of the Chelsea team that won their first Premier League title in the 2004-05 season, was taken to court for allegedly breaching the lease terms of his home in Jay Mews, South Kensington, by converting the rear part of the flat roof into a sun terrace.
The property owner claims that using the compact terrace area, which is less than two meters in length and width according to planning records, constitutes “trespass and/or breach of agreement”.
But the former football star’s lawyers insist the arrangement on the terrace, accessed from the first-floor lounge, complies with planning permission granted by the City of Westminster for works on the house before he moved in.
Mr Cudicini began his professional career at Serie A club AC Milan in 1992, but struggled to break into the first team and, after a stint at Lazio, transferred to Chelsea in 1999.
He became the club’s number one goalkeeper and was named Chelsea’s player of the year in the 2001–02 season, before winning the Premier League in 2005 and 2006 as understudy to Petr Cech under Jose Mourinho.
He then moved to Tottenham Hotspur in 2009 and played his last professional games for Los Angeles Galaxy in 2013, after which he hung up his boots.
He first returned to Chelsea in 2016 as club ambassador and assistant to new first-team boss Antonio Conte, and is now head of the club’s talent and transition programme.
At a brief pre-trial hearing last week, the former footballer’s barrister Mark Warwick KC said he had embarked on a refurbishment project after purchasing the property, which is now valued at more than £3 million online, including the opening of the terrace.
“On 30 June 2006, he bought the house for £1.75 million, taking advantage of the terrace permit,” the lawyer told Judge Olivia-Faith Dobbie of Central London District Court.
“In approximately 2007-2008, he had the terrace creation works carried out in accordance with the terrace permit of the house.
“The work was carried out openly and with the knowledge and/or consent of the previous homeowners.
“He clearly used the terrace as part of the house from about 2008 onwards.”
According to council documents, Mr Cudicini has also secured planning permission to create a new basement below the stables, which will include an en-suite guest bedroom and TV/games room.
But Mr Cudicini, whose 999-year lease on the house is held at the rate of “one red rose per year on request”, now faces allegations of trespass to the terrace and breach of lease.
Haya Property is also seeking damages of up to £25,000, as well as an injunction prohibiting any alleged misuse of the terrace.
But the experienced former goalkeeper claims the allegation against him has no solid legal basis, as well as claiming it was because he overreacted to complaints about his landlords installing noisy air conditioning units near his bedroom.
Its ROK described the infringement claim as “meritless” and argued: “Furthermore, and in any event, this claim was an unfair response to Mr Cudicini’s previous complaint to the City of Westminster that Haya Property had mistakenly installed three noisy air conditioning units next to the master bedroom.”
He told the judge that permission granted to the previous owner in 2006 allowed for “the replacement of the first floor rear window with French doors and the use of the flat roof and light space as a terrace”.
The former goalkeeper also claims that before Haya Real Estate took over ownership in 2015, the existing homeowners were given formal notice of the terrace planning application and they accepted it.
In court, Mr Cudicini’s lawyer said he had “personal knowledge” of the former goalkeeper’s past since his home was bought in 2006 and had carried out further investigations since the case against him, allowing him to mount a “complete defence”.
“He has since carried out further historical investigations,” Mr Warwick said, adding: “These have revealed more documents and more comprehensive information about the background.”
He said that Haya Property acquired the property rights in November 2015 “through a transfer between the previous property owners and Haya Properties”, which transferred part of the property rights to Haya.
The case concluded before Judge Dobbie in a five-minute pre-trial hearing where cost budgets for the upcoming hearing, whose date has not yet been set, were discussed.
