The leasehold owner of a £2.5m apartment in a new block in Fitzroy Place, W1, must pay more than £500,000 in legal costs after failing in a bid to sue the freeholder and developer of the building over banging and popping that he says wakes him up in the night.
The claimant, Naziral Tejani, bought the 990-year leasehold to the property off plan in 2015 as a London pied-à-terre but has spent few nights in the apartment, saying the noises wake up him and his family and ruins their enjoyment of the property.
The noise, according to court documents, comes from the expansion and contraction of the building’s facade and should usually sound like a soft click, about as loud as the clicking of a button on a mouse.
The case went to trial in October and the judge, Veronique Buehrlen KC, heard evidence from experts in facade engineering and acoustics, as well as the owner and his family and neighbours.
The owner said on a number of occasions he had been woken up by “a loud bang”. Although the judge said she felt it was his “genuinely held belief”, he was “vague and sometimes confused”.
The experts, who carried out a survey of the building, discovered occasional ticking sounds which, at their worst, could be 45 decibels, which is categorised as “quiet”.
The judge found the sound did not constitute a nuisance. She agreed it did count as a defect but said the owner had not told the developer about it soon enough, and had instead complained about the sound of footsteps from a flat above.
Under the English law system of “loser pays”, the defendants asked the judge for their legal costs at a hearing earlier this month.
At the hearing, Tejani’s lawyer accepted he had “suffered a resounding defeat” and must pay costs.
The judge ruled he should pay a total of £535,000 in costs to the defendants, plus 2% interest, within 14 days.
Nazirali Sharif Tejani v (1) Fitzroy Place Residential Ltd (2) 2-10 Mortimer Street Gp Ltd as a general partner of 2-10 Mortimer Street Limited Partnership
Technology and Construction Court (Veronique Buehrlen KC) 9 December 2022
