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1 I, MICHELE HILLGARTH of 66 Bedford Gardens, London W8 7EH will say as follows:
Mitre House, 124 King's Road, London SW3 ("Mitre House") Mitre House Management Limited ("MHML")
AR lawrence & Sons limited ("AR lawrence")
Witness Statement of MICHELE HlLLGARTH
1 I am the current leaseholder of Flat 5, Mitre House. I bought the flat in August 1985. There are nine residential flats in total at Mitre House and there are retail premises on the ground floor. The management of the block is currently conducted in the name of a company called Mitre House Management Limited ("MHML”), but for all practical purposes the work is done through one of its three directors, Mr Paul Brown-Constable, who lives in Flat 7 at Mitre House.
(comment/reply) “Mr Paul Brown-Constable, who lives in Flat 7 at Mitre House.”
on a 24/7 basis charging MHML £10 a day with installed 24/7 telephone emer- gency contact and instant response as full time resident/concierge.
2 The other shareholder / directors of MHML are Mr Segar Karupiah (Flat 2) and Dima International Limited. The owner and sole director of Dima International Limited is Jamil Raja, an accountant who manages Flat 6 at Mitre House as part of a portfolio of prop- erties on behalf of Dima International Limited. However Mr Karupiah and Mr Raja ap- pear to play very little part in the practical management of the block and it is unclear to me to what extent they are aware of the activities of Mr Brown-Constable.
Establishment of MHML and the purchase of the Head lease
3 MHML was originally established back in 2011 by myself, Mr Brown-Constable, Mr Karupiah and Mr Raja in order to appoint a proper independent professional firm to manage the block. From day one I believed we had to appoint a qualified agent to man- age the block since none of us had the experience to do so. Only later did Mr Brown- Constable try to convince me, against my better judgment, that we would be better off managing the block ourselves. My views were completely ignored.
(comment/reply) correspondence supplied to date confirms Mrs Hillgarth’s full agreement to managing the block.
4 I had at least two meetings with Mr Brown-Constable on this subject. One was before we bought the head lease, when he told me: "Think about it, if we manage it ourselves, we could make a lot of money. We could also manage other buildings, why stop at Mitre House?" This meeting took place at the Pheasantry in the Kings Road over lunch. I told him that if this was his view I was not interested in buying the head lease. He subsequently realised he had gone too far and backed off.
(comment/reply) I would welcome at least some evidence of these statements.
“I told him that if this was his view I was not interested in buying the head lease. He subsequently realised he had gone too far and backed off.” This is fantasy especially when one considers Mrs Hillgarth refers to herself as a “property developer” in previously supplied correspondence.
5 In hindsight I now realise that I was vital to his plan because in order to buy the head lease he needed the backing of at least 50% of the leaseholders - Flat 2, Flat 6, Flat 4, Flat 7 (himself) and Flat 5 (me). He knew that Dr Samya Riad EI Gharb (Flat 4) had been willing to put her name forward in order to be helpful, but that she was not entirely convinced. (She subsequently withdrew her name as one of the buyers). So I was vital to his plan and he knew that he had to be nice to me. Without me he could not achieve his aim of buying the head lease.
(comment/reply) Dr Riad did not withdraw her name as an initial member and was part of the majority quorum to fulfil the actual legal requirement. Once that was