Leeds City Council to use rent money from own tenants to settle legal claim over office left in 'disrepair'

The council has agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to the owners of Navigation House, in Hunslet, after it was claimed the local authority left the building in a poor state.

The council rented the whole of Navigation House as an office for its housing service between 2012 and 2020 and was required to maintain and repair the property under the terms of the lease. It officially vacated the premises four days after the first covid lockdown was introduced.

The owners of the property, in George Mann Road, had claimed there was “physical disrepair” at the point council staff left the office, which it said breached the terms of the tenancy.

A council report detailing the settlement said the sum would be “funded from the Housing Revenue Account (HRA)” which is made up of income from council house rents. It added however that “funds have been set aside to provide for the settlement”.

Negotiations over a settlement between the two parties continued for three years without an agreement being reached, the report said.

Now, however, the council has settled on a figure it “considered a good compromise”.

The report said this removed “the high financial risk” of paying out a potentially larger figure if the dispute was to go to court.

The council has decided not to disclose the figure involved, arguing that it is “not in the public interest” to do so.

In the report, it claimed releasing the information would “be likely to prejudice the council’s commercial interests and undermine its attempts” to lease other buildings in the future.