London’s Court of Appeal has warned housebuyers of the perils of purchasing listed buildings: new owners can be forced to pay to restore previous owners’ unauthorised renovations, potentially stretching back over many years.
The warning was given in a case concerning a Grade II listed building in London. Christian Braun and his wife bought the property at 137 Talgarth Road, London W14, in 2000. However, Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council subsequently issued an enforcement notice requiring the couple to restore both the renovation work they had carried out, and the work conducted by previous owners dating back to 1970, when the building was listed.
That enforcement notice was quashed by the High Court last December, on the ground that enforcement action could not be taken against the owner of a listed building in respect of the works carried out by previous owners.
The Court of Appeal ruled that the decision was wrong, however, the three judges nevertheless supported the decision to quash the enforcement notice on the basis that it had not made sufficiently clear to the Brauns that it concerned all unauthorised works, and not just those they had carried out.
Simon Brown LJ said: “The important lesson to be learned from our clarification of the full powers of enforcement available to local authorities in listed buildings cases is that purchasers of such buildings should be most careful to ensure that they are not liable to be enforced against for unauthorised works by their predecessors going back perhaps over many years.
“It may be that pre-contract enquiries should be more specifically directed to this risk than has hitherto been the case.”
Braun v First Secretary of State and another Court of Appeal (Simon Brown, Laws and Longmore LJJ) 20 May 2003.
John Litton (instructed by the Treasury Solicitor) appeared for the appellant; the respondent appeared in person.
References: PLS News 21/5/03
