LONDON (Reuters) – The manager of London’s One Hyde Park apartment block, one of the world’s most expensive addresses, is suing a British construction giant for just over 35 million pounds ($44.2 million), after pipework in the properties became corroded.
One Hyde Park was developed by British brothers Christian and Nick Candy with Qatari businessman Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al-Thani. One apartment in the block is on sale for 175 million pounds.
Most of the owners of the 85 apartments are not known but the former prime minister of Qatar Sheikh Hamad owns one, according to a ruling on Wednesday in an unrelated case.
The apartment complex was designed and constructed by a subsidiary of Laing O’Rourke, Laing O’Rourke Construction South Limited, and completed in 2011.
Lawyers representing One Hyde Park Limited, which owns the freehold, say the building’s chilled water pipework is corroded because it was not properly installed.
One Hyde Park is suing the Laing O’Rourke subsidiary at London’s High Court to cover the cost of removing and replacing the majority of the pipework, which would require tenants to move out in stages while the work is carried out.
Laing O’Rourke Construction South Limited denied that the pipework was in disrepair in a written defence filed in January 2023, adding that it was not liable in any event.
But the company did not send representatives to defend the case at a hearing on Thursday, which One Hyde Park’s lawyers say is because Laing O’Rourke withdrew support for its subsidiary.
Andrew Rigney, a lawyer representing One Hyde Park, said in written submissions that “the withdrawal of support … is part of a deliberate and cynical strategy to evade responsibility for funding the compensation”.
A spokesperson for Laing O’Rourke said the company had “engaged in extensive negotiations with the management company of One Hyde Park over the past decade and has made several offers to resolve this matter amicably and fairly”.
The spokesperson added that the company was “disappointed that the management company elected not to engage more fully with our many proposals to resolve this dispute”.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; editing by Barbara Lewis)
