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

Michael Jones says the leases leave the flat owners responsible for nearly all costs

People who were made homeless over serious fire safety problems in the buildings they lived in have been given a £3.6m bill to fix and maintain them.

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

The owners of the buildings' 160 individual flats now face bills of about £10,000 each for service charges and repairs despite not being able to live in the blocks, and say they feel "trapped" by contracts that make them liable for virtually all the problems that arise.

The buildings' landlord said the residents' management company, on which some leaseholders had sat, had "amassed significant debts", and it was now considering legal action against it.

The former council blocks were refurbished as "luxury living" apartments in 2006 by developer LPC Living, and sold for up to £100,000 each.

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

The buildings had suffered from damp, mould, faulty electrics caused by water damage and broken lifts that meant, according to one flat owner, a tenant who was seriously ill had to sleep in his car because he could not manage the stairs.

Dave Hemmings has had to rent a bungalow despite owning a flat he has been unable to live in since July

Dave Hemmings, 72, moved into a rented flat in August after having to move out of his home when the fire service shut the building down.

He said a leak in the building had meant he had had no heating or water for several months.

He said he was in no position to pay the £10,000 he would be expected to contribute, adding: "I can't pay. I haven't got it. I put my pension pot into buying the flat.

"I haven't got that sort of money."

In July, Dave Hemmings was served with the prohibition notice that ordered the closure of the buildings

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

The father-of-two said: "The companies that have come in above us to become our landlords don't seem to be responsible for paying for anything, according to these leases.

"We've paid through the nose repeatedly for works that now need doing again, but it feels like no-one else has to do anything other than making money out of us."

He added: "We've been put through hell over the years. We feel like they want us out, and these bills are just an attempt to get us to hand back the keys.

"We should not be asked to pick up the tab for years of mismanagement and neglect."

Mr Jones added the "leases we signed up for are not designed for us, they're designed for the multi-millionaires who are in charge of the properties".

Tenants and leaseholders said the buildings had suffered years of neglect

The buildings are operated through what is known as a "tripartite" lease structure. There are individual owners of flats, then a residential management company, and then the landlord - or head lessor - above them.

The residents' management company, Parklands (Kirkby) Management Company Ltd, was made up of representatives of the head lessor and some leaseholders.

It was responsible for appointing firms to manage and maintain the buildings and collect service charges.

Workers have been placing grills over the windows of the abandoned blocks in recent weeks

In 2011, the original developer, LPC Living, sold the head lease of the buildings to a firm run by businessman Michael Gubbay, who has a portfolio of hundreds of freeholds and leaseholds around the UK registered to several firms based in the British Virgin Islands.

Mr Gubbay – who has been approached for comment - appointed companies to manage the blocks on behalf of Parklands (Kirkby) Management Company Ltd.

Flat owner Mr Jones, 42, said when over £300,000 was raised during this time to pay towards fire doors and other fire safety works, thousands of pounds in professional management fees were added on.

But, Mr Jones said, the works were to a poor standard and not completed, and the building deteriorated.

Since 2021, the head lease has been held by a company registered in the British Virgin Islands that is owned by millionaire property tycoons Vincent and Robert Tchenguiz, who own thousands of freehold and leaseholds in England.

Millionaire property tycoons Robert and Vincent Tchenguiz own the company that is the landlord of Beech Rise and Willow Rise

Mr Jones and fellow leaseholder Elaine Shaw said they joined the board of the Parklands (Kirkby) Management Company Ltd in 2023 in the hope of sorting the buildings' problems out, but they were unable to. Some leaseholders had already stopped paying service charges, and bills had started to rack up.

Mr Jones and Ms Shaw resigned from the company earlier this year, and since then, head lessor Rockwell FC100 has taken control of the buildings and directly appointed another building management firm to run them.

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

The BBC has been unable to contact the firm.

The lifts in the buildings had been broken for some time before the blocks were shut down

Until the buildings closed in July, Knowsley Council had spent up to £1m on safety patrols so residents did not have to leave their homes.

But this summer, the building was still deemed unsafe by the fire service, which said it had to close "in the absence of any suitable plans to remediate the fire safety shortfalls".

The fire service did not specify what the problems were in its prohibition notice, and the original developer LPC Living has told the BBC it had received "all required approvals and certification" when it refurbished the buildings in 2006.

Residents and leaseholders spent over £300,000 on trying to fix the buildings but the problems remained

The bill sent to flat owners this month included a share of the £600,000 expected cost of replacing the broken lifts, and about £220,000 for fire safety works such as replacing fire doors and making sure there were proper fire breaks in the building.

The cost of "remedials" for the fire alarm system – which was paid for with a £40,000 government grant in 2021 – is expected to be about £100,000.

'Grossly unfair'

Knowsley Council leader Graham Morgan said it seemed "grossly unfair that those residents, who had kept up to date with their service charge payments, and didn't want to move out are now being asked to pay again – and for what benefit given they no longer reside there?"

He added: "I'd encourage residents to seek legal advice about any liabilities they may have under their lease arrangements.

"The council would also support residents and join them in calling upon the government to intervene, to identify those who are responsible for the lack of repairs and upkeep and to ensure that the repairs needed are delivered with the costs of such being met by those who are genuinely liable."

A spokesman for Estates & Management (E&M), the agents for head lessors Rockwell FC100, said the situation was "disappointing".

They added the company had had "no option but to take over management of the building" from Parklands (Kirkby) Management Company Ltd, which they said had "amassed significant debts to suppliers and did not collect service charge money from a large number of homeowners, all of which has resulted in the current situation".

Leaseholders are still expected to pay service charges for the buildings, which were abandoned in July

The spokesman added: "In order to deal with the management of the buildings and seek to address the issues raised by the fire service in the prohibition notices significant work must now be undertaken.

"We are exploring whether legal action against the RMC might be possible, given they were responsible for the management of the buildings until recently.

"We are not a property development company, and our sole focus is moving forward to progress the appropriate works. Residents will be provided with regular updates."

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