Thistle Hotels plc is suing Land & Equity Holdings for rectification of an agreement for sale of a £1.8m portfolio of residential properties in Kings Cross, London. Thistle contends that the sale agreement mistakenly included a building housing two conference centres, which was worth an extra £500,000.
A writ issued at London’s High Court and just made publicly available says that, in October 2001, Thistle instructed Montagu Evans to sell five terraced houses in Kings Cross Road and Granville Square, which were formerly used as staff accommodation for the Euston Hotel in Cardington Street and the Ryan Hotel in Kings Cross Road.
It is claimed that Land & Equity offered £1.85m for the properties, which was accepted, before it reduced its offer to £1.81m.
But it is contended that the property sale mistakenly included a building housing two conferences centres belonging to Ryan Hotel, and an area of land used for storage and service facilities, which were worth a further £500,000.
Thistle Hotels says that the sale agreement did not accurately reflect the parties’ true intentions, and is asking the court to rectify the agreement by excluding the commercial land.
The claims says that if Land & Equity or its solicitor, Rochman Landau, were aware of the mistake made by Thistles former solicitor, Davidson Webber plc, in including the land, they did nothing to correct the error, and it is alleged that it would therefore be inequitable if Land & Equity were allowed to object to rectification.
PLS News 13/8/02
