Owner of Multi-Million Pound UK Flat Sues Over Poor Broadband

The owner of a £2.95m 30th floor apartment in The Heron (Barbican, London), 70 year old travel boss Stephen Shalson, is suing the building’s owners – Heron Residences LLP – for £97,300 after he moved in to find that the property didn’t have good broadband, which forced him to get online via external locations instead (cafes etc.).

Mr Shalson says that the problem went on for about “a thousand days” before Hyperoptic finally turned up, in October 2016, to bring the building into the modern full fibre age. Prior to that point he claims to have had no adequate connectivity within the apartment itself, which he says is despite allegedly being told (through conveyancing solicitors) that his apartment would have “good quality broadband internet available in all rooms.”

However Heron Residences LLP refutes the claim that cabling for data services was part of a clause in the sale contract and that it ever suggested to him that there would be quality broadband in all rooms. The building owner’s Barrister, Robert Bowker, told the Central London County Court that having an internet connection from the time of purchase was “not an outstanding obligation or provision in the contract of sale.”

Daniel Goodkin, Mr Shalson’s Barrister, said (Standard):

“When he moved in the apartment had no internet facility of any sort, including fibre broadband or Hyperoptic … Given the price of the apartment, the fact that it was a new luxury development and its situation in central London, it was so obvious as not to require express statement that the apartment would have a good quality internet service available in all rooms from the time he purchased it.”

Admittedly we don’t feel too much pity for a multi-millionaire who probably should have done a better coverage check before parting with so much money, although it does raise an interesting point about how many large apartment blocks – even those owned by extremely wealthy tenants – can still lack decent broadband connectivity.

In that sense it’s worth noting that a lot of people in some distantly less expensive apartment buildings can and do suffer from the same sort of problem. All of that makes the potential future outcome of this case quite an interesting one to watch.

Meanwhile the Government is currently in the process of developing new rules, which aim to make it easier – and thus potentially also cheaper – for “gigabit-capable” broadband ISPs and mobile operators to access big apartment blocks (Multi-Dwelling Units) when “rogue landlords” fail to respond (here).

In this case it’s unclear why the building’s owners took so long to resolve the issue. Likewise nobody attempts to clearly define what “good quality broadband” should constitute, from a legal perspective, above. However from March 2020 Ofcom would perhaps say that 10Mbps+ via the Universal Service Obligation (USO) should suffice.