Famous city centre building New Zealand House is at the centre of a dispute after their neighbours requested thousands of pounds for the inconvenience of putting scaffolding on their site.
Leisure Group JSM , owners of New Zealand House, approached neighbouring building Oriel Chambers about putting scaffolding on their site during a roof repair work. JSM said they shocked when their offer of a £500 goodwill payment was rejected.
Yakel Property , who manage Oriel Chambers on behalf of the owners, requested £7,500 for a six week licence. Yakel said this sum would compensate the building's tenants for loss of business and potential closures.
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JSM have said the dispute has forced them to postpone important repair work to the New Zealand House roof. They have said that the work is necessary to prevent tiles falling into a side alley.
A spokesman for the Liverpool based JSM Group said “We offered a £500 goodwill payment which we think was more than anything we had to pay. On the other side of New Zealand House is the Reliance House apartments and we had approval for scaffolding from them within a week.
"We have told the owners of Oriel Chambers that our roof is unsafe with loose tiles.
"If tiles fall on the side alley it could hurt their tenants and their customers. We want to get this out there so if this was the case, and if god forbid this did happen, we have said our piece.
"We are a big developer in Liverpool with lots of buildings in the city centre and beyond and have developed many buildings which we have never had issues with our next door neighbours over making sites secure."
New Zealand House was home to the well known Newz Bar venue between 2000 and 2014. The city bar attracted big names from the worlds of music and football. The Water Street building is now at the centre of controversial plans to host a Hooters restaurant.
A spokesman for Yakel Property said:" We offered for the contractor to come to us with a solution which would avert any adverse impact on the retail units’ tenants but unfortunately that was not forthcoming.
"As large developers and landlords, JSM should be aware of the difficulties small businesses have in the current economic climate. Our main priority as always is with our buildings occupiers and their right to trade free of any obstruction or interference.
"The contractors initial request was for six weeks which would have caused hardship to our occupiers, any license fee proposed would have been to compensate those businesses and the landlord would not have profited from it.
"The new owners would have been aware of any outstanding repairs prior to their purchase and failure to reach an agreement which alleys our occupiers concerns does not negate their responsibility to ensure there is no damage to any pedestrians.
"We began with this building like our Slater Studios property to ensure that small businesses and start ups in Liverpool could find a fairly priced business space with good amenities and a friendly management team so that they could focus on ensuring their business vision thrives. We strongly refute the suggestion that we are greedy landlords."
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