Two mothers are suing the owner of a luxury apartment complex for £2million after the ‘faulty’ hot water system forced their families to shower at the gym and work.
Claire Lamb and Molly Ball paid an average of over £1.18m each for their two-bedroom two-bathroom pads at The Belvedere, in Bloomsbury.
The glossy flats feature German kitchens, a day concierge in the building’s lobby and marble bathrooms.
But despite the hefty price tag they say the flats are ‘unfit for habitation’ and so have not been able to rent out, sell or live in the flats full time.
Both the women’s daughters ended up moving into the flats but claim they could not even take a shower or draw a bath due to the erratic hot water supply, which delivers ‘short and inadequate bursts of warm water before turning cold’.
The situation has become so dire they have taken the developers to court to cover the costs of fixing the problem, as well as lost opportunities to rent out their properties.
London‘s High Court heard that Ms Lamb paid £915,000 in 2014 for her apartment in the block, while Ms Ball paid £1.35m in 2016.
The sale came after high-end developers, Regal Homes Construction Ltd, had revamped the Victorian terrace building near the British Museum and converted it into 18 plush residences.
Mothers Claire Lamb (pictured) and Molly Ball are suing the owner of a luxury apartment complex for £2million after the ‘faulty’ hot water system forced their families to shower at the gym
They are suing on grounds of ‘defective’ heating and hot water systems, focusing the brunt of their complaints on the block’s central riser
They are suing on grounds of ‘defective’ heating and hot water systems, focusing the brunt of their complaints on the block’s central riser.
Ms Lamb, a solicitor, said she started making several complaints about the inconsistent water supply from February 2014 up to July 2015.
The hot water shortages created problems renting out the two flats, the women claim, adding that, ‘instead, they have been deprived of the opportunity to let their flats to tenants as intended by reason of the difficulties with the heating and hot water system’.
Both women say their daughters moved into the two flats due to the obstacles to renting them out, but the dire hot water situation meant that Ms Ball’s daughter Katy eventually refused to live there.
‘Ms Ball’s premises are generally empty – except for occasional stays by her and her partner or friends since her daughter was unwilling to return to the premises in 2020 mainly as a result of the problems with heating and hot water supply,’ the two women say in court papers.
‘The hot water supplied by the central system and HIU (heat interface unit) has been insufficient such that taps and showers may deliver no adequate hot water at all – or may only provide short and inadequate bursts of warm water before turning cold or regularly fail altogether.’
Overall, the building’s system has proved ‘incapable of providing reasonably adequate, consistent and reliable heating and hot water’, they maintain, meaning that their apartments were ‘unfit for habitation’ until around November 2022.
But Regal is denying all fault, insisting that any drop in hot water supply should be blamed on erratic heating interface units in the flats themselves, for which the two owners are responsible.
They paid an average of over £1.18m each for their two-bedroom two-bathroom pads at The Belvedere, in Bloomsbury (pictured)
The developer’s barrister Rupert Cohen added: ‘Their cases are predicated on an acceptance that they haven’t suffered any heating issues since November 2022.
‘At its highest, their case is that, when the outside temperature is around zero and depending on occupancy of the building, the heating system remained incapable of providing reasonable, adequate, consistent reliable heating and hot water.’
He said that Ms Lamb and Ms Ball have yet to come up with comprehensive expert evidence based on a ‘full inspection of the system’ and claimed they have yet to properly flesh out their claims against Regal.
Mr Cohen noted that seven tenants of The Belvedere were originally suing alongside Ms Ball and Ms Lamb, yet now only their claims remain live against Regal.
The full trial is set to start in 2027 with projected legal fees of around £700,000.
