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Group of London owners face bills of up to £240,000

A group of flat owners in a landmark building complex in central London have been hit with bills for almost £240,000 each for repairs and renovations.

The leaseholders of flats on the Centre Point estate in Westminster have described their anguish in trying to pay for the £7m renovation.

The owners of many of the 26 flats in Centre Point House, which is connected to the brutalist Centre Point tower, have claimed that they should not have to foot the bill for all the renovations and cannot now sell their flats because of the dispute.

Centre Point, a 34-storey tower constructed in the mid-1960s, stands on the corner of New Oxford Street and is one of the most recognisable buildings in the centre of London. Centre Point House, a smaller block, has 36 duplex flats on the third to ninth floors.

The proposed repair works will involve replacing the facade. The bill for the project is just over £7m, or about £238,000 per flat – a figure which could rise.

The property developer Almacantar, which bought the Centre Point complex in 2011 for £185m, is now in dispute with the leaseholders over the renovation project, which will require the residents to move out of their homes.

Hans Patel, who bought a flat in the building 20 years ago, says the bills that have been posted to flat owners have caused distress and anxiety. “It is a huge amount. We don’t have that in savings,” he says.

Another leaseholder, who asked not to be named, says: “My biggest fear is I’m terrified of losing my home because I don’t know where I’m going to find that money from.”

The Centre Point dispute is the latest instance of leaseholders being hit with enormous bills for renovations to the buildings in which they live.

Last month, the Observer reported that the owners of former local authority flats had been handed bills of more than £60,000 for upgrade works.

Of the 36 flats in Centre Point House, 26 are owned by individuals and 10 by Almacantar. The leaseholders argue that there has not been enough transparency on how the money is being spent, and they have a report which says the work can be carried out for much less. They also claim that the project will act to improve the building – which falls outside their obligations as leaseholders.

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