The IHBC has welcomed the important penalties in heritage regulation as unauthorised works to a listed building in the City of Westminster have led to charges of over £93,000, where owners and their structural engineer have been fined over £58,000, plus substantial costs, after destroying the historic fabric of a Grade II listed building.
Husband and wife Mohammed Owadally and Seema Khan, both chartered accountants, and their chartered structural engineer David Williams, were successfully prosecuted by Westminster City Council on July 7 at Hammersmith Magistrates Court, after the Grade 2 Listed building was stripped of its the original butterfly roof, walls, floors chimney breasts and an external chimney stack, all without consent.
Bob Kindred who manages the National Database of Listed Building Prosecutions for IHBC said: ‘This is the highest fine we have yet seen in the magistrates court and a welcome affirmation of the importance of mounting court proceedings where a case can be justified.’
‘The fine is not especially high in relation to London property prices however. The present ceiling of £20,000 per offence in the magistrates court was imposed in September 1991 and is now in urgent need of review if it is to act as an effective deterrent against willful destruction.’
The property, at 99 Star Street in the Bayswater Conservation Area, London dates from c.1830. The building was acquired for £1.5m in August 2013 and the majority of the works were undertaken in November 2013. The council issued a number of verbally and written warnings in November and December 2013 and the defendants were told to stop work but carried on regardless adding structural steelwork and risking ‘irreversible damage’ to the historic brickwork.
District Judge Coleman told the court that the ‘historic fabric’ of the house had been destroyed in the ‘drastic’ operation, affecting the building’s physical stability.
The court rejected claims by the owners that they did not know the building was listed after it emerged that the engineer had informed them that it was.
Owadally and Khan were found guilty on all four counts, and were each fined £27,000 plus £15,000 costs. Williams was found guilty of one count relating to the construction of a new roof, and was fined £4,000, plus £5,000 costs. Additionally all three defendants were required to pay a victim surcharge of £120.
View a case review of the judgement in The Planner
View an article in the Evening Standard
