Fatcat freeholders SHAMED by MHCLG for having no plan to remove Grenfell cladding from their buildings include Long Harbour and James Tuttiett

By Martin Boyd

The freehold owners of cladding sites where nothing has been begun to remediate the dangerous buildings range from Long Harbour’s Guernsey-based Adriatic Land 3 Limited and James Tuttiett, of E and J Capital Partners, to small fry.

Today the MHCLG, in an extraordinary move against residential freeholders, published the names of those controlling sites which have Grenfell ACM cladding but have no tendering plan in place to fix the building.

The MHCLG list of shame can be seen here:

Aluminium composite material cladding

Shortly after the fire at Grenfell Tower, the independent expert advisory panel advised the government to undertake identification screening of residential buildings over 18 metres tall (in accordance with building regulations guidance on rain-screen cladding). This is in order to identify the type of aluminium composite material ( ACM) used.

The inclusion of both the £1.8 billion Long Harbour fund, run by Will Astor, and E and J Capital Partners, approx £500 million, is a serious reverse for the residential freehold sector, whose lobbyists proclaim them responsible long-term custodians of apartment blocks.

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick announces naming the “egregious building owners” in the Commons today:

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick named and shamed the freeholders on the eve of tomorrow’s cladding scandal demonstration outside Parliament, to be attended by LKP patron MPs Sir Peter Bottomley and Justin Madders, and the mayors of London, Manchester and Salford: Sadiq Khan, Andy Burnham and Paul Dennett.

A host of MPs, leaseholders and media are expected, and the mayors will attend a meeting with the APPG co-chairs afterwards.

The Sun attacks ‘fatcat’ housebuilders with inflated fortunes thanks to Help To Buy

The inclusion of Long Harbour’s Adriatic Land 3 is a surprise.

Not least because Richard Silva, executive director of Long Harbour boasted to the Communities Select Committee of its efficiency:

“We have a very broad range of managing agent relationships.

“We have over 100 and we have an estates management team that will, effectively, provide the rigour and oversight, the reporting, the health and safety, the fire risk assessment, reporting to us, so that when the building safety team at MHCLG ask us how many cladding problems we have had of late, we are able to tell them pretty quickly.“

The Guardian carried a quote from Long Harbour’s PR criticising the government’s naming and shaming. It said it was disappointed and claimed the freeholder had provided almost £800,000 to prevent the cost of fire safety works falling on resident, was in talks with the construction company and has applied to the government’s cladding fund for money to fix the building.

The money would be forced loans added to the service charges to pay for waking watch and other immediate fire safety issues. The loans could also be described as paying to meet Adriatic Land 3’s compliance obligations.

“Naming and shaming building owners, who are committed to fixing these buildings as quickly as possible, is completely counterproductive,” they said.

Here are the companies named and shamed today:

Adriatic Land 3 Limited

This is part of the £1.8 billion of freehold assets managed by Long Harbour. It is listed as a Guernsey-based company listed as the controlling company of a number of Adriatic Land ground rent companies registered in the UK. In turn Adriatic 3 is listed as having its ultimate controlling party as Boardwalk Finance DAC in Dublin

We have covered this one here

Who are Dublin-based Boardwalk Finance DAC and Jetty Finance DAC? Why do they own freeholds to people’s homes? And why are they based abroad?

RMB 102 Limited

RMB 102 Limited is more than 75% owned by SF funding Ltd which is more than 75% owned by E&J Sf Limited, which is more than 75% owned by E & J Holdings Ltd.

Phew!

And all that is more than 75% owned by Tmw Holdings Ltd, which is more than 25% owned by James Tuttiett and more than 25% controlled by Anne Tuttiett, beleived to be Mrs Tuttiett.

The overall group is know as E& J estates with James Tuttiett referred to as a “leasehold tycoon who controls 40,000 leaseholds.

Leasehold tycoon: man whose firms control 40,000 UK homes

He does not appear on any rich list but he has built a property empire that rivals that of the Duke of Westminster. Companies controlled by James Tuttiett, aged 53, have quietly snapped up the freeholds of tens of thousands of houses and flats in almost every city in England and Wales, which are now at the centre of controversy over spiralling ground rents.

Chaplair Limited

Listed as a company involved in the development of building projects. No significant control shown for the company by individual directors or holding companies. The company has net assets of £9.5 million.

If Chaplair rings a bell its because they have been part of a key case concerning a landlord right to their costs in pursuit of a debt in the small claims court

Chaplair Limited v Kumari [2015] EWCA Civ 798

Grangewalk Developments Limited

Is a small company listed as a developer of building projects with a Mr and Mrs Johnston owning more than 25% of the company each. Company shows as having net assets of £119,725 as of their July 2018 accounts.

STG Management (London) Limited

Is a dormant company with no listed controlling company of significant control, Directors include Ch Estate Management Ltd also dormant company and the site appears to be an residents’ management company, from reading the articles of association.