Property adviser Tony Lorenz has launched his high court claim against Fox-Davies Capital for unpaid fees on a short-lived agreement to take space in a Savile Row office block.
Lorenz, representing his company Lorenz Consultancy in court himself, is seeking to recover £142,774 of professional charges based on what he claims was a contract for property search and introduction services with the financial services firm, which in June last year took a 10-year lease of the 8,500 sq ft sixth floor at 23 Savile Row, W1, on a rent of £93 per sq ft.
The space at Irish developer D2 Private’s scheme – a 100,000 sq ft redevelopment of the former English Heritage headquarters – was the first letting in the building and was to be occupied by a new subsidiary of Fox-Davies.
However, plans for the subsidiary fell through, leaving the space surplus to requirements.
Two weeks after the deal was agreed, the floor was assigned to fund manager Altima, while Fox-Davies, which advises and raises funds for the natural resources sector, stayed in its City offices at Whitefriars House, EC4.
The Lorenz Consultancy claims £142,774 in fees and VAT for introducing Fox-Davies and securing the lease at the development.
However, Fox-Davies denies it was party to a contract, and says that any contract Lorenz had was with Kim Richardson, chairman of Jendens Holdings Ltd and Jendens Securities Ltd, who was at the time a proposed purchaser of Fox-Davies, before the deal ultimately fell through.
Today, Mr Lorenz told judge Mr Justice Kitchin that when Mr Richardson approached Lorenz looking for offices for a new business, he presented a Fox-Davies business card with his name on it, which included a company email address, a telephone number that connected to Fox-Davies’ offices and a mobile number to a BlackBerry provided by the company.
He said: “Anybody receiving this card from Mr Richardson would see that he is with authority holding himself out to be a person in the employ of Fox-Davies.”
He added that, alternatively, Mr Richardson was “representing Fox-Davies Capital as their agent”.
However, Fox-Davies argues that Mr Richardson did not purport to be acting upon the company’s behalf and that the instruction given was for Lorenz to search for offices for Mr Richardson’s group.
It says that it gave Richardson no indication that he had authority to contract with Lorenz on its behalf, and that it did nothing that could have ratified a contract with Lorenz.
The trial is scheduled to last three days, after which Mr Justice Kitchin is expected to reserve his judgment.
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