Exclusive building in London leased by BVI-registered company taken over by squatters
A six-storey townhouse in Mayfair, which costs £6.25 million and which can take pride of having one of London’s most exclusive addresses by the Upper Grosvenor Street, several weeks ago has been occupied by eight squatters who now plan to leave it only being evicted. According to the Land Registry, the building is held on long lease by the British Virgin Islands-registered Deltaland Resources Ltd, which leases it from the Duke of Westminster’s Grosvenor estate. A spokeswoman for the property company of the Duke of Westminster confirmed company’s awareness of the squatters and said the problem will be solved by the BVI company as the leaseholder.
Deltaland, in its turn, does not come in touch with the group of artists who had settled in the house and redesignated it as a “live-in art installation”. The BVI company has employed Macfarlands, a City law firm, to deal with this issue.
Meanwhile, the multimillion-pound building has become one of the whole range of central London properties occupied by the group of teenagers and artists, including the addresses on Kensington High Street, in Tottenham Court Road and the former Iraqi consulate. They have changed the locks, reconnected the utilities and say they are going to pay bills. The squatters also insist that they are not making criminal offence, and that they even improve the building, which has been empty since 2005, noting that “the building is listed so English Heritage might be interested to see how the owners have let it disintegrate.”