Accountant sues after luxury £1.5m ‘Versace Tower' flat bathroom has no bath

Telegraph

27-03-2025

An accountant is suing a developer after a bathroom in her luxury £1.5 million flat didn't have a bath.
Mi Suk Park, 54, paid a £381,000 deposit on a two-bed apartment and a parking space in the 50-storey Aykon London One tower in Nine Elms 10 years ago.
Dubbed the ' Versace Tower' after a high-profile collaboration between developers and the fashion house to design the interiors, the off-plan purchase was made after Ms Park viewed a brochure and floorplan and made the 'lifetime decision' to buy.
Seven years later, when the flat was finally ready two years behind schedule, she refused to move in and sued for more than £700,000 after complaining it was 'materially and manifestly different from the layout of the apartment as set out in the plan and description' that she had seen before paying the deposit.
She told Central London County Court her complaints include one bedroom being smaller than she expected, one of the two bathrooms not having a bathtub, an intrusive utility cupboard which 'impinges' on what she expected to be an 'open-plan living space' and a two-year delay in the apartment being ready.
She is now demanding more than £700,000, comprising the deposit money she paid and cash to cover five years' rent and other losses she says she suffered over the flat that was intended to be her and her husband's 'main home until retirement '.
Counterclaim against Ms Park
But developer Nine Elms Property Ltd – a Jersey-based entity owned by a parent company in Dubai – is fighting the claim and countersuing the accountant for not completing the purchase, insisting her deposit has been forfeited.
The company's lawyers are arguing the brochure that Ms Park saw before putting her money down was for illustrative purposes only and made clear that what was being shown was simply an example of a 'typical layout'.
Nazar Mohammad, for Ms Park, who runs an accountancy business in Surrey, told Judge Alan Johns that his client agreed the deal in November 2015 and paid her deposit towards a purchase price of £1,524,400.
'The apartment was an 'off plan' purchase on the 29 floors facing the west and, when built, it would have two bedrooms and two bathrooms, with a bathtub in each critically,' he said.
'It was to be an open-plan layout. The defendant provided a plan appended to the sales and purchase agreement, and she signed the same plan.'
The flat was meant to be ready to move into in 2020 and Ms Park sold her home in 2019 in preparation, he continued.
But when it was finally ready in 2022 and she viewed it, she was deeply unhappy.
'On delivery of the apartment, the claimant refused to complete the purchase as the apartment was materially and manifestly different from the layout of the apartment as set out in the plan and description,' he told the judge.
'The defendant's expert and the defendant accept that the built apartment is not the same as the plan attached to the contract dated November 6, 2015.'
'Irredeemable breaches'
He said 'irredeemable breaches' of the purchase contract include the fact that 'the utility cupboard impinges on the living space. It cannot be altered ... The second bedroom is smaller ... The second bathroom has no bathtub.'
He said the brochure promised that 'Aykon Nine Elms will present a unique landmark ... feature floor-to-ceiling windows ... panoramic views of London' and that, 'put simply, life at Aykon Nine Elms will represent the ultimate in luxury, the ultimate in Versace '.
'Without qualification, the brochure describes it as the ultimate in luxury and combines it with panoramic views. The expectation raised and the price demanded is matched,' he said.
Giving evidence, Ms Park told the judge what she had seen in the brochure and plans before paying the deposit were 'structural elements which should have been fixed.'
But Rupert Cohen, cross-examining for the developers, said the brochure had shown example apartments and pointed out that 'at the top of each page ... it says 'typical layout'.'
'You may call me careless, but I didn't see 'typical' as an important word,' she replied.
Ms Park is claiming her £381,000 deposit money, £131,000 rent she has paid since 2020, £150,000 over the sale of her house, which she says could have realised more if she had not hurried the sale through to meet the 2020 completion date, plus about £45,000 of additional losses.