More than 50 residents who lost their home due to fire begin High Court claim

Many were key workers, including teachers, NHS staff and postal workers, who lost all their belongings and were left homeless. All residents were evacuated without serious physical injury, but the block required complete rebuilding.

Richmond House was developed by St James, part of the Berkeley Group, in 2010. After the fire, research by Professor José Torero, head of UCL’s Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, and the London Fire Brigade found that cavity barriers in the timber-framed building were “defective” and “contributed nothing” to preventing the blaze from spreading into the internal structure and destroying the building.

The families of Richmond House included five infants under one year old, who are not participants in the legal claim, all of whom were in the building at the time of the fire.

In their claim form, submitted to the Technology and Construction Court, the victims argued that St James was liable for breaches of duties under the Defective Premises Act (DPA), arising out of the design and construction of Richmond House.

The residents will argue St James failed to design Richmond House in a professional manner and so the homes were “unfit for habitation”.

At the same time, they claimed MTVH breached the DPA and Occupiers’ Liability Act, arising out of the design, construction, repair, maintenance, improvement or management of the block.

The victims will argue that MTVH arranged for St James to carry out works and so was liable for St James’s failure. In addition, they will allege MTVH failed to remedy defects which it ought to have known about.

The fire spread rapidly in the building. The residents will argue that they suffered “psychological injury” because of the trauma of experiencing the fire, being in danger of personal injury or death, their evacuation, the loss of their homes and possessions, and the consequences that followed.

Jennifer Frame, who lost her home in the fire, said Tony Pidgley, the late Berkeley founder, had told her in person that the developer would take responsibility and pay compensation for residents’ losses.

“More than four years later, those assurances have still not been honoured,” she said. “We have also recently learned that the ‘responsible entity’ that owned our building, MTVH, has settled their own claim against the developer.

“It is outrageous that corporate interests in the housing industry are so often prioritised over the lives of ordinary people who simply want to own a safe home. After almost five years, justice cannot be delayed any longer. The residents of Richmond House deserve to recover their losses so we can finally move on with our lives.”

Christian Hansen, a housing and public law specialist at Bindmans, the law firm, said: “Developers should not be able to build and sell unsafe homes and then just shrug their shoulders and show no concern for the victims of its tragic mistakes.”

Berkeley declined to provide a new comment but pointed to a previous statement from a spokesperson: “Compensation has been paid to residents and those that wished to do so have been able to sell their flats back to the owner, MTVH.”

A one-off compensation payment of £3,000 was paid to residents in December 2019. However, they and their lawyers do not believe this was sufficient given the gravity of their loss.

In response, MTVH said: “This has been a distressing time for our residents as they have sought to resolve this claim, and our focus has been on doing the right thing by them. At each stage of this process we have acted in good faith, working towards a mediation within a timetable agreed between the parties.

“It is regrettable that for reasons outside of our control, mediation to date has not been possible. We will work constructively, as we have done throughout, and are hopeful that the parties can arrive at a resolution that will help to bring some closure.

“Meanwhile, over the coming months we will be welcoming back those residents who have chosen to return to Richmond House and doing all that we can to help them to settle back in.”