Lorenz claims finders fee for Fox-Davies aborted Savile Row lease

Property adviser Tony Lorenz has launched a High Court action against Fox-Davies Capital for unpaid fees after it failed to take space in a Savile Row office block. Lorenz, who is representing his company Lorenz Consultancy in court, is seeking to recover £142,774 in professional charges based on what he claims was a contract for property search and introduction services with the financial services firm, which in June 2010 took a 10-year lease of the 8,500 sq ft sixth floor at 23 Savile Row, London W1. The space at Irish developer D2 Private’s landmark scheme – a 100,000 sq ft redevelopment of the former English Heritage headquarters – was to be occupied by a new subsidiary of Fox-Davies. However, the subsidiary was not established, leaving the space surplus to requirements. Two weeks after the deal was agreed, the floor was assigned to fund manager Altima, while Fox-Davies remained in its offices in Whitefriars House, London EC4. Fox-Davies denies that it was party to a contract. It says that any contract Lorenz may have had was with Kim Richardson, chairman of Jendens Holdings and Jendens Securities, who at the time was proposing to purchase Fox-Davies before the deal fell through. Lorenz told Kitchin J that when Richardson had approached him, he presented a Fox-Davies business card bearing his name, the company e-mail address, a telephone number that connected to its offices and the number  of a company Blackberry. He said: “Anybody receiving this card from 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, Richardson was “representing Fox-Davies Capital as its agent”. However, Fox-Davies argues that Richardson had not purported to be acting on the company’s behalf and that the instruction given was for Lorenz to search for offices for Richardson’s group. It says that it did not authorise Richardson to contract with Lorenz on its behalf, and had done nothing that could have ratified a contract with the company. The trial is scheduled to last three days..