Man who bought house for £395,000 discovers he owns school next door worth millions
A business owner ended up getting more than he bargained for when he bought a house after a legal mixup meant that he ended up also owning the primary school next door.
Sukhjit Bains had bought the three bedroom house from Birmingham City Council at auction for £395,000, but when he was finalising the purchase his solicitor mistakenly sent him the incorrect kind of contract, which also included the school in the purchase.
This initial error was then also not noticed by the conveyancers at the council, who approved the purchase, making Mr Bains the legal owner of the three bedroom house, and George Dixon Primary School.
It would take an astonishing 10 years for the error to be noticed, when the school applied for status as an academy, the Daily Star reports.
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Mr Bains reportedly only discovered he had been the unwitting owner of the school the whole time when the council had to make the awkward call to him to request that he give it back.
As technically speaking Mr Bains is the legal owner of the school, if he wanted to he could potentially do things like demand rent to use the property or even attempt to evict the school and demolish it.
Mr Bains runs a care provider called NH Care Ltd, and bought the property at auction back in 2013. The house itself was originally built as a cottage for the school caretaker, and it's this link that created the circumstances which made the extraordinary mistake possible.
Due to their connection, both the school and the house are registered under the same number on the land registry.
When the contracts were being drawn up the form used was one called a TR1, which transfers all the property which is registered under a single number with the land registry.
That meant that no legal distinction was made between the former caretaker's cottage that Mr Bains was purchasing, and the entire school which was registered under the same number.
When he found out about the bizarre situation Mr Bains initially agreed to return the school to the council.
However, since then he has stopped replying to the council, and has also declined to sign paperwork which has been sent over to him.
It is believed that the parents of the more than 300 pupils at the school were not aware of the situation.
Birmingham City Council has confirmed that it has now started legal proceedings in a bid to get the school returned to them after the colossal mistake, claiming that he has not answer letters, and phone calls, and that they have also been unable to reach him at his office in person as well after sending council officers to speak with him.
The city council, which went bankrupt in 2023, has launched a legal case against Mr Bains, as well as against Lloyds Bank who are his lender, with the case being pursued in the High Court in London.
In their case, the council sets out its formal demand that the school be returned to them, as well as saying that both the school and the playing fields attached cannot be sold without the permission of the Secretary of State.
A spokesperson for Birmingham City Council said: "The council is pursuing the appropriate legal process to rectify the position.
"As the matter is currently the subject of ongoing legal proceedings, it would be inappropriate to comment further."
Kit Roberts