The old Victorian boundary walls that pre-date the estate on Bushell Close are leaning at a dangerous angle and at risk of falling and causing injury.
This issue was first identified in January 2024 and PRERA have been chasing Lambeth for a resolution for over 2 years now. You can catchup on the issue in our blog post from the 4th December 2024 by clicking here.
Lambeth contacted Notting Hill Genesis – the freeholder of the neighbouring property who’s trees have damaged the boundary wall – in 2025 after PRERA identified the freeholder and supplied contact details to Lambeth.
In March 2026 we received the following status update from Jill Hogan, our Neighbourhood Housing Manager at Lambeth:
“Our attempts to negotiate with Notting Hill Genesis were unsuccessful and we referred the matter to our Legal Team at least a year ago. My colleague, Sidique Tejan (who has since left the Council) and I have been chasing our Legal Team regularly for an update. The matter has now been escalated to the Assistant Director of Legal Services and he has suggested a Teams Meeting with all interested parties to discuss a way forward which may include contracting out to external solicitors. With hindsight this matter could have been escalated even further earlier. I would like to reassure you that the matter remains very much on our radar and following this meeting, which will probably happen in April, I’ll will provide you with an update.”
In April 2026 we received this further upadte:
“The case was contracted to external solicitors, Birketts, however they have confirmed there is a conflict of interest so they can’t take the case. Message Lambeth received from Birketts: ‘We have just carried out the usual file opening procedures for this matter and undertaken a conflict check. Unfortunately, I have identified that we do have an inescapable conflict of interest on this matter, so I regret that we are unable to act. I am sorry for the obvious inconvenience’. I have messaged our Legal Team to ask what happens now – I would expect that it is passed to another firm but will keep you updated when I hear.“
PRERA will continue to chase Lambeth on this matter to ensure the issue is resolved and the cost to replace the damaged wall is not passed onto service charge paying residents.