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Owners of A Hyde park took a branch of the construction company Laing O’Rourke in front of the High Court of London concerning the defects of complaints spoiled one of the most exclusive residential goods regimes in the United Kingdom.
The luxury building, a few steps from the Harrods and Harvey Nichols department stores in Knightsbridge in London, was a magnet for oligarchs, celebrities and other super rich buyers since its development by development by the Candy Frères and the former Prime Minister of Qatar.
Since the opening of the program in 2011, its properties – which include a penthouse with a panoramic view of Hyde Park, listed for 175 million pounds Sterling – have established market records.
But the owners complain that the building has several problems that require repair works and pursue a subsidiary of private laing O’Rourke, which has built the building, for 35 million pounds sterling in damages.
The lawyers of One Hyde Park Limited, an entity belonging to residents who in turn has full ownership, said that corrosion was discovered in 2014.
Other problems included failing butterfly valves, united joints and a defective pantograph cradle – used to clean glazing – they said.
Residents of any ground floor should leave their apartments while work was done, they warned.
Laing O’Rourke said in a statement that he had “initiated numerous negotiations with the management company of a Hyde Park in the past decade”.
He had “made several offers to resolve this amicable and fair question, in particular by voluntarily committing to undertake repair work on property and to make several remuneration offers”.
The company added: “We were fully determined to find a mutually acceptable result and to remain disappointed that the management company has chosen not to engage more fully with our many proposals to resolve this dispute.”
One Hyde Park Limited brought a trial in 2021 and the civil trial began on Thursday.
The court learned that the Laing O’Rourke did not “participate” in the trial and had not sent legal representatives.
Andrew Rigney KC, representing the owners, argued that the parent group of Laing O’Rourke withdrew the financial support of the subsidiary shortly before the start of the trial and argued that it was part of a “deliberate and cynical strategy to escape responsibility” for funding for remuneration.
Refrigerated water was “subject to omnipresent and very serious corrosion,” said Rigney, when it was likely that more united joints “fupend in the next 10 years”.
While Laing O’Rourke had proposed to carry out reparation work, no settlement agreement had been possible, the addition in the written arguments. “Except for some isolated examples, the necessary correction works have not been carried out,” he added.
Notch And Christian Candy, whose group Candy & Candy acted as development director for One Hyde Park, and Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jaber Al Thani – The former Qatari Prime Minister known as HBJ Who trained a joint venture with Christian Candy to develop the program – is not part of the trial.
