The would-be buyers of a £16m-plus office site near Luton airport have won a court fight to recover more than £1m after they pulled out of the deal when a major service charge dispute came to light.
Bikhu Bhuptani and Paul Simmons’ commercial real estate business, which operates under the brand Greenridge, agreed to buy the three office buildings, known as Wigmore Place, from Kempton Investments for £16.25m, with contracts exchanged in September 2013 and a deposit of £812,500.
However, Greenridge subsequently discovered that Kempton was involved in a multi-million-pound service charge dispute with the major tenant, TUI Northern Europe, which has its UK HQ there.
Greenridge pulled out of the deal, and sued to recover the £812,500 plus damages for its losses as a result of the failed deal.
Finding in its favour, and ordering return of the deposit plus £395,948 in damages, Newey J found that replies to commercial property standard enquiries (CPSEs) were “misleading” in what was said about service charge “disputes” and “complaints”.
He said: “I find that Greenridge was induced to enter into the contract by the misrepresentations that I have found proved. It seems to me that Greenridge is entitled to have its deposit returned because the untrue representation that there were no arrears of service charge resulted from fraud or recklessness.”
In May 2014, Kempton sold Wigmore Place for £15.6m.
Greenridge Luton One Ltd and anr v Kempton Investments Ltd Chancery (Newey J) 22 January 2016
