'Squatters rights' give man £200,000 home - Barbican Property

A man who has hardly paid any of his mortgage for 12 years looks set to be given his home after a High Court judge ruled his bank had left it too late to repossess it.

London Estate agents Barbican Property Clerkenwell Flats

Djabar Babai wrote to the solicitors for Natwest Bank in September 1999 telling them he had "lost everything" around 10 years earlier and was now unemployed.

Three years later the bank told him he still owed them £61,887 for the detached 1960s home in Heaton Mersey, Stockport.

He agreed to repay the mortgage at £40 a month but only made a small number of the promised payments, the High Court was told.

Two years later, in January 2004, Mr Babai was declared bankrupt and by October last year that debt had spiralled to around £165,000 on a property valued at over £200,000. But Judge Richard Arnold, QC, sitting at London's High Court, said Natwest had no claim on the property under the Limitation Act 1980.

The law, which enshrines the principle commonly known as "squatters rights", says actions for possession of land must be brought within 12 years.

The letter Mr Babai had sent in 1999 was "too ambiguous," said the judge, to be an "acknowledgement" of the mortgage as Natwest had claimed.

He said the bank's "right of action" began in 1992 and any claim for possession was now "statute barred".

It means the mortgage over Mr Babai's home is now "extinguished" and Natwest no longer has any right to seek to enforce its debt.

The court also heard that Mr Babai is the registered owner of the property, along with his wife Zinat Babai.

IIB exits prime london property in US$409 million deal

Posted: 04-03-2007 , 07:08 GMT

International Investment BankInternational Investment Bank, a globally-focused investment bank based in Bahrain, and Saudi Economic Development Company (SEDCO), a leading private Islamic investment firm in Saudi Arabia, today announced the US$409 million sale of the office building located at 33 Grosvenor Place in the prestigious Belgravia area of London. Purchased by the partners in June 2005 for US$280 million, this exit provides investors in the property with a 100% return on investment.

IIB’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Aabed Al Zeera, said: “We are delighted to announce this highly successful exit, which has allowed us to deliver superior returns to our investors. We have not only far exceeded initial projections, but we have also delivered this exceptional result well in advance of the original five year investment holding period. It is the aim of IIB to offer GCC investors a diverse range of high quality, Shari’ah-compliant investment opportunities from across multiple asset classes and geographic locations, and the exit from this London property underscores the success of our strategies and efforts to date. We will continue to work with SEDCO and other partners to introduce additional high quality investment opportunities including those in real estate assets in the region as well as other key European and Asian markets in which we are active.”

Clerkenwell property | Clerkenwell estate agents