Trident House Development Limited v Mohammed Yousaf
| Court | Chancery Division |
| Judge | HH JUDGE KLEIN |
| Neutral Citation | [2025] EWHC 344 (Ch) |
| Date | 21 February 2025 |
| Year | 2025 |
| Counsel | Jonathan Upton,Jonathan Ward |
Neutral Citation Number: [2025] EWHC 344 (Ch)
Claim No: PT-2024-LDS-000029
& Claim No. L80LS080
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
BUSINESS AND PROPERTY COURTS IN LEEDS
PROPERTY, TRUSTS AND PROBATE LIST (ChD)
Fourth Floor,
West Gate,
6 Grace Street,
Leeds, LS1 2RP.
Date: 21/02/2025
Before:
HH JUDGE KLEIN SITTING AS A HIGH COURT JUDGE
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Between:
TRIDENT HOUSE DEVELOPMENT LIMITED Claimant
- and -
MOHAMMED YOUSAF Defendant
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Jonathan Upton (instructed by Mishcon de Reya LLP) for the Claimant
Jonathan Ward (instructed by Blakewater Certus Solicitors) for the Defendant
Hearing dates: 20-24 January 2025
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Approved Judgment
I direct that no official shorthand note shall be taken of this Judgment and that copies of this
version as handed down may be treated as authentic.
.............................
HH JUDGE KLEIN
HH JUDGE KLEIN
Approved Judgment
Trident House Development Ltd v. Yousaf
HH Judge Klein:
1. Galem House is a nineteenth century former textile warehouse in Bradford which is
being developed by the Claimant (“Trident”) into seventy seven apartments (“the
project”). Trident, a special purpose vehicle, bought Galem House for £580,000 in
October 2022, although a financial viability assessment carried out for Trident by
Saunders Quantity Surveyors in June 2022 had attributed a value of £29,250 to the
property. That may be because Galem House stopped being used in about 2000 and
became derelict. As the financial viability assessment explains (and as photographs
support):
“The building comprises a 7 storey structure with the two lower
levels forming half basement levels. The external walls are
made out of sandstone with feature band courses, stone window
heads and cills and the proportion of the openings give the
building a vertical emphasis. Galem House was subject to a
significant fire which destroyed the middle third of the building
through all the floors resulting in the loss of part of the roof
through which rain has entered the building for many years.”
Galem House abuts Grattan Road to the north and Vincent Street to the west. Its
southern elevation is a party wall with Sunbridge Apartments, which, in turn, abut
Sunbridge Road. Its eastern elevation is mainly a party wall with Woolston
Apartments, which, in turn, abut Tetley Street to the east. South-east of Galem House
is an open almost-rectangle of land belonging to the Defendant (“Mr Yousaf”) and
operated by him as a car park, the entrance to which is adjacent to Sunbridge
Apartments on Sunbridge Road. A small section of Galem House’s eastern elevation
(where it is not a party wall with Woolston Apartments), in the south-east corner, was
a wall which abutted the car park. It is this small section of wall (“the Galem House
wall”) which is the subject of the two claims between the parties which I have had to
determine. The Galem House wall abutted a lower level wall in the car park (“the
Yousaf wall”).
2. It is not apparently disputed (and photographs appear to show) that, to a significant
height, the Galem House wall was not built of external bricks. Photographs also
suggest that, apart from signage indicating that the car park is being used as such, the
car park is an open piece of land – there are no marked car park bays for example –
which, where it abuts Sunbridge Road, is defined by a wall which may have been an
external wall of a former building. Although no-one has contended that the Galem
House wall was a party wall, because of its construction and the photographic
evidence to which I have just referred, it may have abutted a former building on the
car park.
3. Trident’s development of Galem House has a significant place in Bradford’s
regeneration. West Yorkshire Combined Authority has committed to making a £1.2
million grant, from the Brownfield Housing Fund, to Trident (if certain pre-conditions
are met), and the local planning authority, City of Bradford MDC (“Bradford MDC”),
has waived any community infrastructure levy and has not required Trident to
undertake any planning obligations under a Section 106 agreement. A Project
Overview to support the grant says as follows:
HH JUDGE KLEIN
Approved Judgment
Trident House Development Ltd v. Yousaf
“The project occupies a strategic position within the Goitside
conservation Area between the Bradford Learning Quarter (that
houses the Bradford College and Bradford University
campuses) and the council’s primary city centre regeneration
area known as “City Village”. The three strategic priority areas
of the City village, Goitside and Learning Quarter have the
capability of providing some 2,700 new homes out of the
current adopted City Centre Area Action Plan’s target of 3,500
homes, and the successful delivery of the scheme will
contribute to Bradford Council’s efforts to achieve this
strategically crucial target.
The new homes will make a significant contribution to the
Council’s strategy of creating affordable and sustainable
housing in the city centre in accordance with the adopted City
Centre Area Action Plan (AAP), that will also help to address
the District’s shortage of the right type of housing in the right
places to meet Bradford’s needs over the next 15-20 years.
…
The scheme outputs and benefits include:
To restore a priority heritage building comprising of
0.13 acres or 0.053 hectares back into use.
…
To provide 77 new homes (apartments) in a key priority
urban centre.
…
To create nine new building management jobs
delivering 13,624 hours of employment per year.
To deliver 3 apprenticeships in conjunctions with
Bradford University.
To deliver 4 apprenticeships in conjunction with
Bradford College.
To deliver 100 hours per year of events to promote local
businesses and a sense of community to the building
residents.”
4. Bradford MDC initially granted planning permission for the project on 10 May 2023.
The permission required development to be carried out in accordance with the
approved development plans, which included a plan of the Galem House wall (“the
original plan”) showing windows formed overlooking the car park. The original plan
included provision for four windows in the Yousaf wall, apparently because, at the
time planning permission was sought, Trident believed that the Yousaf wall was part
Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI
Get Started for FreeStart Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
