A Swedish entrepreneur who co-founded Skype and Kazaa has failed in a legal action against a couple that sold him their £1.1m “dream home” in Southampton, Hampshire, which he later had to demolish because it was structurally unsafe.
Judge Edwards-Stuart rejected the claim by Nicklas Zennstrom and his wife Catherine that Helen Moseley and Deborah Wilks were acting as “property developers” when they rebuilt the property so were liable for its defects under the Defective Premises Act 1972.
The judge found that the couple built the minimalist Bauhaus-style property overlooking the marina as their “dream home” between 2007 and 2009, and sold it in November 2009 only so that Wilks could make a change in career, and to get away from an “unpleasant” neighbour who objected to having a same-sex couple as his next-door neighbours.
The Zennstroms, who paid £1.1m for the property in November 2009, but had to demolish it when it was found to be structurally unsafe, had argued that Wilks and Moseley developed the property in the course of a business of providing dwellings and the building was neither built in a workmanlike manner nor was it fit for habitation when completed.
They claimed that Wilks and Moseley were already unable to finance the outgoings of the property on their joint incomes and that they had always intended to sell it as soon as the work was complete. They argued that the couple deliberately kept the house sparsely furnished, more like a show house rather than a home, so that it would be attractive to potential purchasers.
The judge disagreed.
Moseley and Wilks said: “From start to finish, the case was a relentless battle to convince Niklas and Catherine Zennstrom and their team of lawyers that we are what we say we are: ordinary homeowners, not property developers. It was a thoroughly awful experience that we would not wish on anyone.”
