Client: St Augustine's Priory School

Our client, a girls’ school, had a joint agreement with a local company. The company had leased part of the school’s land to establish an all-weather pitch as an extension to their employees' sports club. Everyone benefited – the company’s employees and the pupils had use of the all-weather England pitch.

However, when the company sold the sports club after only eleven years into the 20 year lease, the school was left high and dry. All maintenance on the pitch ceased and it soon became unsafe to use.

The school complained and was simply offered £40,000 by the company’s property advisers to go away. Was this reasonable?

We were already advising the school on its rates liability when they called us for help. For £800 we provided a report on the state of repair which was then sent to the company’s property advisers. Faced with a fairly damning report – the company asked the school what they wanted. Our specialist building surveyors looked closely at the relevant repair covenant and put together the costs for an eight year repair plan. We had a tough fight on our hands but eventually we had an offer from the company. £478,000 in total.

Not unnaturally, the school was delighted. It has decided to arrange its own maintenance of the all-weather pitch, and Gerald Eve oversaw the design and construction of a new access road and power supply to the pitch thus removing all links with the former sports club. The school is putting remaining funds towards the construction of a new IT/library suite, drama centre and science block. Gerald Eve also provided construction monitoring advice for the new developments.