Designer's £520K court bill after refusing to pay estate agent fee on mansion
A high-flying designer has been hit with a £520,000 court bill after she was sued by estate agents for refusing to pay their commission.
Tiggy Butler and high-end realtors, Rokstone, clashed in court over her mansion in central London, which was sold to a Saudi Arabian tycoon for £10.3million in February 2021.
The luxury property, which overlooks Regent's Park and is located in one of the capital's most coveted locations, exchanged hands after a drop of over £1m from the asking price.
Ms Butler, who specialises in restoring historic top-end homes, claimed she was left £1.75m out of pocket after the sale of the Corinthian-style 18th century house.
Rokstone, led by "super-prime" property queen Becky Fatemi, sued Ms Butler at the Central London County Court after she refused to hand over £318,000 in commission.
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Tiggy Butler refused to pay the commission (Champion News)
'Super-prime' property queen Becky Fatemi (Champion News)She claimed her agents were in breach of contract because they missed clear chances to sell her property for more cash.
Ms Butler claimed Rokstone's alleged failure lost her sale opportunities and the financial impact of huge interest payments.
On top of denying any liability for the unpaid commission she counter-sued Rokstone for alleged breach of contract in failing to sell her home at the right price.
But after a five-day trial Judge Alan Johns dismissed her case, backing Ms Fatemi and Rokstone's case and ordering Ms Butler to hand over the unpaid commission plus £210,000 up front towards the estate agent's legal bills.
The judge cleared Rokstone of negligence in failing to contact a wealthy vendor she claimed would have snapped up her property.
"Ms Butler says that if Rokstone had not failed in these respects she would have achieved a better sale price," said Judge Johns, before going on to reject the claim.
There was no "failure to exercise reasonable skill and care", said the judge, adding: "This argument fails".
The mansion in central London sold for £10.3million (Google)Judge Johns found that Rokstone did fail to pass on an £11m offer promptly to Ms Butler in January 2020, but noted that the deal was discussed with her soon after and "was not acceptable to her".
This meant that "no loss" was caused by the estate agents' actions, the court heard.
The original asking price for Ms Butler's town house was fixed at £14.5m in 2016, but dropped down after other agents failed to sell the property for several years.
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Ms Butler bought the house in 2014 and spent two years and tens of thousands of pounds restoring it to its former grandeur before putting it on the market in 2016 for £14.5m.
Ms Fatemi's agency was instructed in 2019 after the house failed to sell for three years, despite the efforts of several other agents.
Daniel Petrides, for Rokstone Ltd, told the judge that the house still remained unsold in October 2020, by which time Ms Butler was in "dire financial straits" and facing the imminent prospect of the house being repossessed.
After being informed of the situation, Ms Fatemi's agency dropped the asking price to £11.6m and by February 2021 had sold the house and its contents for £10.3m.
But Ms Butler subsequently refused to pay the agency the £318,452.01 commission Ms Fatemi claims it is owed.
Stephen Innes, for Ms Butler, told the judge that she was unwilling to pay the commission, claiming that the contract with the agency is non-enforceable because the terms were not clearly explained to her in writing, as prescribed by the Estate Agents Act 1979.
Additionally, she claimed Ms Fatemi's agency in fact owes her money, alleging that a failure to "act with reasonable care and skill" led to her losing money on the sale.
But in the witness box, Ms Fatemi had told the judge that Ms Butler was under "serious financial constraints" by the time the house was finally sold.
"She was a month away from getting the house repossessed. A lot of our efforts and energy went into making sure that didn't happen," she added.
Lawyers for Rokstone after the judgement hailed the outcome as a "complete vindication".
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