Property tribunal rules council cannot charge Barley Mow Estate residents for essential safety work

The landmark decision may prevent leaseholders in Limehouse tower blocks from paying up to £85,000 per flat in construction charges.

The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber), which deals with property disputes in the UK, has ruled that leaseholders of flats on the Barley Mow Estate in Limehouse, cannot be charged for essential safety work.

The decision was released on 11 July in response to Tower Hamlets Council’s appeal against the First-Tier Tribunal (Property Tribunal), which ruled on 11 September 2023 that the council could not charge leaseholders for the costs of structural strengthening works on the estate. The Council has the option to appeal against the ruling until 12 August, after which they need to comply with the decision.

Barley Mow Estate consists of two 11-storey tower blocks named Malting House and Brewster House overlooking Ropemaker’s Fields. Historical landmarks like St Anne’s Church, Narrow Street and the tranquil waters of the Limehouse Cut are all within a five-minute walk of the estate. 

Built in 1967 on land that once housed a brewery, the estate uses the same ‘Large-Panel System’ (LPS) design as Ronan Point, a Newham tower block which collapsed in 1968 when its structural walls failed to withstand a gas explosion. The LPS design was employed in thousands of council housing schemes at the time but falls short of modern safety standards. A number of the panel-built tower blocks have been demolished due to safety concerns, but at least 1500, including Malting and Brewster, are still standing. 

The opening of Barley Mow Estate was delayed so that it could be fitted with additional reinforcements to avoid a repetition of the Ronan Point disaster, which killed four people and injured 17. The estate was revamped in the 1990s, when it was fitted with additional cladding. A third block – Risby House – was originally part of the estate but was demolished in 1991 due to concerns that its foundations would not be able to withstand the construction of the Limehouse Link tunnel below. 

However, a building safety review conducted in 2018 in the wake of the Grenfell fire found that Barley Mow’s cladding was flammable, and its reinforcements were not structurally sound. The fallout from Grenfell left councils across the UK under scrutiny for fire safety and Tower Hamlets Council funded the replacement of the cladding on the Barley Mow Estate, with the help of a government grant. But they told leaseholders they would be liable for the cost of construction to strengthen the two tower blocks’ support walls. 

Leaseholders, all of whom purchased their homes under the Right-to-Buy scheme, were quoted costs ranging from £50,000 to £80,000 depending on the size of the flat. At least two residents have sold their flats back to the council, which offered to buy 32 of the Estate’s flats below market rate. The reduced rate reflected the value of each flat, minus the cost of the construction. Starting in 2018, residents have been decanted from their flats to allow building to take place, but delays have meant that construction is still ongoing, despite the 18-month window originally set for the work’s completion.

In 2022, the residents submitted a petition to the council not to be charged for the maintenance work. In 2023, the First-Tier Property Tribunal heard their case and ruled that the cost of construction was not payable by Barley Mow’s tenants and leaseholders. The council appealed that decision, but the most recent ruling this month has come down on the side of the residents once again. 

In her summary of the case, Judge Elizabeth Cooke explained that Barley Mow’s residents could not be held liable for the cost of remedying structural issues with the buildings, because these issues dated back to the building’s construction, and therefore were distinct from repairs or maintenance work which might otherwise be payable as part of leaseholders’ service charges.

‘The case is hugely significant for the parties: Tower Hamlets currently faces a significant hole in its Housing Revenue Account, whilst an unfavourable outcome would have seen the leaseholders facing “ruinously expensive” service charges,’ said Ellodie Gibbons, a barrister at Landmark Chambers, who represented Barley Mow’s leaseholders in the case. 

‘The result arguably has wider significance for landlords and tenants of other buildings, facing other building safety issues,’ Gibbons continued, ‘as it suggests that without clear wording in the relevant leases, landlords may not be obliged to remedy those issues and tenants may not be obliged to meet the cost of the landlord doing so.’

The ruling may set a precedent which favours leaseholders, as the country’s ageing stock of social housing continues to undergo safety reviews. If the Council does not submit an appeal, the ruling will prevent residents from paying an estimated total of £9 million for essential safety work, putting the onus on councils to fund works necessary to remedy structural defects.

To learn more about Barley Mow Estate and its community, read: The reluctant housing hero: how octogenarian Derrick Cutler has campaigned tirelessly for his neighbours