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Lawyers Warn Many More Trapped In “Property Prison”



Lawyers have been appointed to represent more than 40 flat owners in a multi-million-pound fraud claim in the High Court after an alleged failure to identify extensive defects and fire risks during the construction of their block.


Milners Solicitors, headquartered in Leeds, is now warning that there is likely to be a significant number of leaseholders trapped in a “property prison” in similar buildings across the UK, with their homes also now unsellable.


Acting on behalf of 44 leaseholders, living in 32 apartments, Milners has filed a fraud claim against Zurich Insurance in the High Court.


The group action is accusing the firm of issuing 10-year home warranties despite not inspecting their properties – and seeking a compensation award potentially in excess of £5m.


At the centre of the legal dispute is the high-rise Aurora apartment block on Swansea seafront – built by York-based Persimmon Homes almost 20 years ago – where the purchase of their dream flat quickly turned into a nightmare for its residents.


Martin Scott, who specialises in complex High Court construction and engineering disputes, said the safety of high-rise apartment blocks was still in sharp focus following the Grenfell Tower fire disaster.


He said:

"Sadly, we know that Aurora residents are not alone in having to live in such financially devastating circumstances, which one client described to me as like ‘having a noose around her neck’."

“There are leaseholders in many other parts of the country who are enduring a similar story with structurally defective flats not being adequately inspected and now being forced to turn to the courts for financial redress.”


He added:

“The reality is, if you’re an owner-occupier of one of these apartments, like the 44 clients we represent, you’re living in a mortgage cage or a property prison which you can’t get out of."

“You can’t re-mortgage because nobody will touch you where there are fire issues, and you can’t sell because there’s no market, or a very limited market where cash buyers are prepared to take the risk. "


“And the truth is, a property purchase is the biggest purchase any ordinary person will make in their lives, so if that goes wrong, then their life goes wrong. So you’ve got to find a fix, or you have to be able to recover compensation for them to be able to move on.”


Residents at the Aurora development claim Zurich surveyors bypassed their own electronic inspection system to issue handwritten cover notes as proof of their insurance policy.


They said if they had realised their cover notes were issued in this way and without final inspections, they would not have completed the purchase of their apartments.


As well as problems with water ingress, residents claim that fire doors and fire breaks between apartments were inadequate. Milners operates a network of offices, including Leeds, Harrogate, Malton and Darlington.


Photo: Milners’ solicitor Martin Scott, who specialises in complex High Court construction and engineering disputes.

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  • Mar 19, 2025
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The Government’s proposals to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP from April 2027 must be underpinned by investment in skills development beyond ‘boots on the ground’, with core engineering resources severely lacking expertise, specialist consultancy Engineering by Murray has warned.


UK STEM industries, including the defence sector, have been plagued by a shortage of technical engineers for several years, with the Institute of Mechanical Engineers warning recently that the profession could face a workforce crisis similar to that seen in the NHS, if skills and training are not prioritised.


As Chris Nelson, Associate Director at specialist recruitment consultancy, Engineering by Murray, comments, a lack of appropriate investment in skills growth will put the plans – and the country’s security – at risk.


“The resilience of the UK’s defence sector is increasingly under scrutiny, and while the focus has largely been on the size of the armed forces, it’s not just a ‘boots on the ground’ issue. An equally critical challenge to address is the lack of engineers available to support vital projects, not just in relation to technology and machine maintenance, but also emerging cybersecurity needs."


“The UK is home to several globally leading defence employers who are all likely to increase the size of their workforces in the coming years, but currently the specialist talent pool isn’t at the scale needed to support significant growth. Plans were discussed earlier this year to develop a National Engineering and Technology Workforce Strategy, but it’s clear that the defence employment market requires additional and urgent investment before most other sectors."


“The increase in defence spending has to be distributed in proportion to the realistic needs of the industry. Without the required technical engineering skills, the armed forces will be ill-equipped, which simply cannot happen."


"As the Government maps out its spending plans, we urge them to consider what resources are necessary and, critically, where they will come from at a time of a growing STEM skills crisis.”

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