‘Barely a mention of suffering leaseholders’ in Olympic Village fire safety remediation tribunal

The case is understood to be one of the first times that these new powers will be tested and could set an important precedent for other blocks where developers or freeholders are refusing to provide funding.

At the start of the hearing last week, both firms presented their arguments regarding who is responsible for covering the remediation costs in five apartment buildings in plot N26 of Olympic Park.

The tribunal continued on Friday as both firms wrangled over whether Get Living should be using taxpayers’ money to foot the repair bill.

Get Living’s representative, Jonathan Selby KC, said there is “no suggestion that Triathlon should pay for these remediation works, or any tenants in any of the flats in the five blocks should pay. 

“Leaseholders aren’t paying, leaseholders aren’t required to pay and there is no challenge to the fact that the works are funded, underway and on target.”

A total of 14 buildings at East Village have had aluminium composite material cladding removed, while work is ongoing at the buildings that are the subject of the tribunal.

Mr Selby added that the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities “is likely to want to fund” any potential overspend “because it wants to get the work done”.

The “public purse argument” can be “the only justification for making the order” to pay £16m, he argued. However, he claimed that Triathlon was not pursuing the tribunal for this purpose, but rather to “ensure that it does not have to contribute to these remediation costs”.

In response, Richard Millett KC, representing Triathlon, said Get Living’s healthy finances mean “it is simply wrong to treat public funding as the golden goose”.

Get Living’s ownership structure was a key element of the FTT. The entire Olympic Park was sold to a joint venture between Qatari Diar and a Delancey client fund after the Olympic Games, with Triathlon purchasing a lease on the affordable homes in East Village in 2009. 

The market rent homes in East Village are managed by Get Living, which Delancey launched in 2013 as a property management company. The developer acquired the site with Qatari Diar, the Qatari royal family’s development arm, in 2011.

Get Living became a real estate investment trust in 2018.

Fire safety remediation works in East Village are led by the estate management company and East Village Management Limited (EVML), the long leaseholder that is also a respondent in the case.

Mr Selby argued that the money Get Living makes from the development is from its ownership of the blocks, rather than its creation of it. “Get Living has just bought the properties and rented them out,” he said, meaning it is “more akin to a landlord than a developer”.

However, Mr Millett said that Get Living “is just the latest holding parent company in a single, continuous holding group”. The companies underneath have been "heavily involved” with the original developer, Stratford Village Development Partnership (SVDP).

He pointed out that Get Living did no due diligence in 2018 when it acquired the structure that held SVDP. “This was no more than corporate restructuring,” he said.

He argued that SVDP is “a thinly capitalised and balance sheet insolvent partnership”. Get Living, by contrast, is “a fatly capitalised company” that “not only owns and controls the developer but is associated with the freeholders and has benefited very substantially from its acquisition of the East Village”.

Mr Millett summarised: “The respondent is the developer. It can’t pay its way. The parent company which controls the developer has very deep pockets. The parent company has made enormous financial gains from its ownership of the block. Get Living is associated with those freeholders. All roads lead to Rome.”

Mr Selby responded: “We don’t pretend for a minute that Get Living’s shoulders aren’t broad enough to comply with the orders sought.

“But we do say when considering what order is just and equitable to make, Get Living is not the alter ego of SVDP the developer. Get Living cannot in any way be said to be morally responsible for these defects.”

He said that Get Living accepted in January 2023 that the blocks would require full remediation. However, it later explored a cheaper retrofit scheme to save money when it emerged that government funding might not be available for Get Living’s share of the costs. It then accepted that “the only option was a full remediation solution” when pushed by Triathlon. 

“This is not the case of a recalcitrant developer,” Mr Selby said. “Get Living has been working to get these defects rectified as soon as they were discovered.”

A spokesperson for the Olympic Park Homes Action Group said: “The hearing has shown the complexities of the Building Safety Act, particularly where land and property is owned by complex corporate structures. 

“Despite legal teams resembling football squads, there was barely a mention of the suffering leaseholders have and continue to endure as a result of endemic fire safety failures across the UK’s construction industry.

“This is a tale of corporate greed with those responsible for widespread fire safety failures seemingly happy to maximise shareholder returns and let the taxpayer bear the cost of righting their wrongs.”

A judgement will be given in early 2024.

Inside Housing reported in July that Get Living had set aside £14.3m for EVML for the work in this case.