Residents settle court claim with housing association and developer over estate block fire

On the Worcester Park Estate, Richmond House was a four-storey, timber-framed block which burned to the ground five years ago. All 23 shared ownership flats were destroyed.

All 60 residents, many of whom were key workers including teachers and NHS staff, were evacuated but left homeless.

After the fire, research by UCL professor José Torero and the London Fire Brigade found defective cavity barriers that allowed the blaze to spread into the internal structure and destroy the building. St James, which built the block in 2010 before selling it to MTVH, had given the block a stay put strategy in case of a fire.

MTVH’s annual report for 2023-24 included net income of £2.69m from insurance proceeds paid out because of the fire. The housing association logged £7.29m of one-off costs related to the fire in 2021-22. MTVH has since restored the block and remediated others on the estate.

Agnese De Masi, a victim of the fire, said: “The housebuilding market is broken. There are no adequate protections for defective low-rise buildings, like ours, that are four-storeys and under. We have been lucky in being able to make a claim, but the costs to victims of making a claim are in most cases prohibitive.”

Christian Hansen, the residents’ solicitor of Bindmans law firm, said: “Attempts to fix the broken system have not gone far enough. As well as missing protections for under 11m buildings, negligent and dishonest constructors of all sizes of buildings can still avoid responsibility.

“A damages claim could be made in this case because St James is still a going concern. Many defective and dangerous buildings have been built by short-lived companies which disappear afterwards, leaving profits to a parent company and leaving residents with no one left to hold accountable.”

Mr Hansen added: “The Building Safety Act 2022 recognises that problem, but does not plug the gap. It allows only limited claims against associated companies leaving victims unable to claim for many losses.

“Victims cannot recover anything from such constructors if their building burns down – as happened to Richmond House. Among other things, claims against associated companies should be widened beyond the narrow confines in the Building Safety Act.”

A spokesperson for MTVH said: “We can confirm that MTVH has reached a settlement with the residents of Richmond House and St James. At each stage of the process, MTVH has acted in good faith, working constructively within the mediation timetable set out by the residents’ lawyers, Bindmans, as they sought a resolution with both MTVH and St James.

“We hope that coming to this settlement will help to bring some closure to residents.”

Berkeley Group declined to comment.