Owners transform rundown apartment block into £13.5m asset

INDIVIDUAL private owners in a block of 82 Manchester apartments who faced financial ruin when developers renovating the property went bust are celebrating following a revamp which means the combined value of their homes is now £13.5m.

The residents of 11-storey Warwickgate House in Old Trafford feared their flats would be worthless when two successive developers walked away from refurbishment projects on the block, built as offices in the 1970s before being converted into apartments at the turn of the century.

Led by retired Ian Williams, 62, the owners joined together to form Warwickgate House Management Company when EOn threatened to disconnect the electricity supply because it had not been paid for three years by the developer, who also owned the freehold.

“At that point our properties were unsaleable and impossible to mortgage and many of the owners were in negative equity, just after the banking crash of 2008.” said Williams.

“The only way we could rescue the situation was to buy the freehold of the property ourselves. The most difficult thing was getting everyone on board because they had been let down by successive developers who had lied to us.

“Most of the residents became reluctant landlords because they had no chance of selling their properties. The apartments are very easy to rent out because they are in an ideal location for the city.”

Williams managed to persuade his fellow owners to stand the cost of £2,500 each to buy the freehold and a further £1,250 to fund to a £1m of repairs to the block.

Key to this was a near £1m insurance claim which took three years for Williams and the newly-formed management company to get as a result of rusting balconies which had become unsafe.

“It took three years for the insurance company to agree our claim which meant the renovation could take place,” he said.

“The whole thing has taken a lot longer than I thought it would and it has been extremely stressful. But the important thing is to remain focused and remember that sometimes you have to give a little to get a lot.

“The main trouble with the first developer who went bust was that they didn’t communicate other than to ask for money.

“I realised the most important thing was to keep the fellow owners informed. It has not been a smooth journey but the property is now showing the benefits of what we have done.

“It shows what a group of people can do if they are determined.”

The management company now has a sinking fund of up to £20,000 for maintenance and Williams is continuing in the role of chairman of it and two other related companies – Warwickgate Freehold Ltd and Brookside Property Management, from which he will draw a salary for a least the next five years.

Williams’ work meanwhile has been hailed by fellow owner Chris Holden, who said: “Without his willingness and the time he spent working for the good of the rest of the owners in the block, we would have got nowhere.

“He now deserves to take a salary out of the property management business because for years he has been doing this for less than the minimum wage. It has been a long and arduous journey, which, thankfully, has ended very well for us.”