The senior director of the company which protects Dolphin’s Square’s long-standing tenants has quit in a row over future policy.

Tenants angry about the management and condition of the building have been pressing the company’s directors to take legal action against the landlord.

They want their company, Dolphin Square (2005) Ltd, to serve a Schedule of Dilapidations on Axa Investment Management, the company which manages the property for the unknown owner in Luxembourg, forcing them to carry out works to the building estimated to cost around £100 million. They also want action against rising rents.

Jan Prebble, a director of the company for many years, has resigned from what she calls “a divided board” and complains that the company is spending more on legal advice than charitable services to tenants.

Mrs Prebble, who is in her nineties, says she wanted money given by the company by Westminster city council on its sale of Dolphin Square to be “spent in the interests of tenants” through charitable donations which is what appears to have caused her break with the board.

In fact, the company was given £20 million in 2005 by Westminster City Council on its sale of the property to Westbrook, an American investment manager. The purpose of the money was to enable the company to enforce future repairing and other obligations of the new owners on behalf of the tenants of Dolphin Square at the time of the sale.

The company is party to a lease on the square which expires in 2034 and has strong powers to force any owner to maintain and manage the square, failing which it can carry out works itself and even take control of the property if the owner fails in its obligations.

Tenants of the square are very concerned about the identity of the anonymous new owner of the square following the sale last year and their financial resources, especially after discovering that they had  taken over a £500 million M&G mortgage. They believe strongly that Axa, a reputable international company, should reveal their identity.

Around 170 tenants in Dolphin Square hold “Option B” leases which give them security of tenure but which are now subject to annual rent increases of 4% in a rental market which has been falling dramatically in recent years. They contend that the leases are not compatible with recent consumer and other legislation and want Dolphin Square (2005) to take legal action on their behalf.

They are also concerned that many tenants are leaving Dolphin Square on account of the high rents and that the landlord is doing little to let flats at market rents to gain new tenants. They report that half the 1,250 flats are empty and that  the Art Deco shopping arcade is suffering from a lack of customers.

When Dolphin Square was owned by Westminster City Council, the priority was to rent flats to people who needed to be in central London for their work. As a result, it attracted many tenants from all walks of life and a large group of MPs, peers, and senior military officers which made it a vibrant and  attractive place to live. They would like an identifiable owner with the same ethos.

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