Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
The owners of One Hyde Park have taken an arm of construction company Laing O’Rourke to the High Court in London over claims defects have marred one of the UK’s most exclusive residential property schemes.
The luxury building, a short walk from the Harrods and Harvey Nichols department stores in London’s Knightsbridge, has been a magnet for oligarchs, celebrities and other super-rich buyers since it was developed by the Candy brothers and the former prime minister of Qatar.
Since the scheme opened in 2011, its properties — which include a penthouse with sweeping views of Hyde Park, listed for £175mn — have set market records.
But the owners complain that the building has several problems that require remedial works and are suing a subsidiary of privately owned Laing O’Rourke, which constructed the building, for £35mn in damages.
Lawyers for One Hyde Park Limited, an entity owned by the residents that in turn owns the freehold, said corrosion had been discovered as far back as 2014.
Other problems included failing butterfly valves, leaking soldered joints and a faulty pantograph cradle — used for cleaning the glazing — they claimed.
Residents on any given floor would need to vacate their apartments while works were carried out, they warned.
Laing O’Rourke said in a statement that it had “engaged in extensive negotiations with the management company of One Hyde Park over the past decade”.
It had “made several offers to resolve this matter amicably and fairly, including voluntarily committing to undertake remedial works to the property and making several compensation offers”.
The company added: “We were fully committed to finding a mutually acceptable outcome and remain disappointed that the management company elected not to engage more fully with our many proposals to resolve this dispute.”
One Hyde Park Limited brought the lawsuit in 2021 and the civil trial began on Thursday.
The court heard that the Laing O’Rourke was not “participating” in the trial and had not sent legal representatives.
Andrew Rigney KC, representing the owners, maintained that Laing O’Rourke’s parent group withdrew financial support from the subsidiary shortly before the trial was set to begin and argued this was part of a “deliberate and cynical strategy to evade responsibility” for funding compensation.
Chilled water pipework was “subject to pervasive and very serious corrosion”, Rigney said, while it was likely that more soldered joints “will leak over the next 10 years or so”.
While Laing O’Rourke had offered to carry out remedial works, no settlement agreement had been possible, the barrister added in written arguments. “Save for a few isolated examples, the necessary remedial works have not been carried out”, he added.
Nick and Christian Candy, whose Candy & Candy group acted as development manager for One Hyde Park, and Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al Thani — the former Qatari prime minister known as HBJ who formed a joint venture with Christian Candy to develop the scheme — are not part of the lawsuit.