Birmingham council sold a £395,000 house in 2013; 11 years later, it discovered a primary school had accidentally gone with it; now it is going to court to get it back | World News
Birmingham City Council sold a three-bedroom former caretaker’s house at auction in 2013 for £395,000, and a paperwork error meant the sale also transferred ownership of George Dixon Primary School in Edgbaston. The mistake went unnoticed for 11 years while the school carried on as normal. It came to light on 12 April 2024, when the school looked into becoming an academy and learned that the council no longer owned the site. The council has since launched High Court proceedings in London against NH Care Ltd, the care provider that bought the house, and Lloyds Bank, its lender.
A Birmingham house sale that came with a school
The house, on Fountain Road, was originally built for the school’s caretaker, and its back garden borders the school’s playing fields. It was bought at auction by NH Care Ltd, a company linked to businessman Sukhjit Bains, 50. Both the house and the school were registered under the same Land Registry title, which became the root of the problem when the sale paperwork was drawn up.The transfer was drafted on a TR1, the form used to transfer an entire registered title, rather than a TP1, which transfers only part of one. Because the house and school shared a title, the TR1 handed over both. According to the council, the form was prepared on behalf of the buyer, yet the council’s own conveyancer signed it off without spotting the error.
The buyer was a company, not Bains personally
Although Bains is the businessman most often named in coverage, the purchaser was NH Care Ltd. Bains and the company’s two other directors are reported to have been unaware that the school had been included until the council contacted them. NH Care has reportedly not yet filed a response to the claim.After spotting the error, the council approached the company to resolve the matter. The council says Bains initially agreed to return the school, but that communication then stopped and the necessary paperwork was never signed. With no resolution, it turned to the courts.
The case in the High Court
The council is asking the court to correct the register and restore its ownership of the school. By its account, the original contract covered only the house, so the transfer document did not reflect what was agreed. It also argues the mistake was mutual, since the incorrect form was drafted by the buyer’s lawyers and executed by the council’s conveyancer. Finally, it says that selling school land and playing fields requires the consent of the Secretary of State, which was never obtained. A council spokesman said it is “pursuing the appropriate legal process to rectify the position.”
The school stays open
George Dixon Primary School, which has around 324 pupils, has continued to operate throughout. The house, meanwhile, has reportedly stood empty since the sale.The case lands as the council, which effectively declared itself bankrupt in September 2023, works through a large programme of property disposals. A sale that was meant to dispose of a former caretaker’s house instead produced a dispute over a primary school, and a High Court claim to unwind it more than a decade later.
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