Oval Mansions

Auction windfall

Apr 22 2003
By Richard Evans

South London Press

THERE was a cash windfall for Lambeth council when a one-time haunt for squatters sold at auction - for more than £3million above its reserve price.

Run-down Oval Mansions, which overlooks the cricket ground, had been boarded up for at least two years.

It had a reserve price of £2million, but the final sale price was £5.2mil-lion, which will be ploughed into improving the cash-strapped author-ity's housing stock. However, two-and-a-half years ago, the council was predicting a £6million sale.

It has 47 homes and five commercial units, and the council had to fight a long-running battle to get squatters out of the building.

The Court of Appeal finally settled the dispute in 2000 when it ruled the squatters were not entitled to keep their homes as they had acknowledged Lambeth's ownership in a 1998 letter. Also at the auction earlier this month, the council sold the Cricketers pub in Kennington for £227,000.

Councillor Jeremy Clyne, deputy executive member for housing, said: "This is excellent news.

"The sale boosts the funds the new administration has raised from sales of empty properties, which can now be reinvested into refurbishing and improving council homes."

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