Bankers Engage in £100,000 Legal Dispute Over Closet Disagreement

In a dispute among neighbors over a one-square-meter utility cupboard situated in a communal garden in the prestigious Knightsbridge area of central London, where homes can carry a price tag of up to £3 million, tensions have escalated to the point of a £100,000 court battle.

 

The cupboard in question was initially part of Anthony and Angela Knight's residence. However, the Knights were taken aback to discover that it had been covertly bricked up and incorporated into the adjacent flat, owned by banker Dr. Lyudmil Zyapkov and his wife, Juliana Grigore.

 

The Central London County Court heard that Dr. Zyapkov took legal action, driven by a determination to retain possession of the cupboard, to the point of becoming, in the court's words, "obsessed" with it. This contentious battle even led to a doorstep confrontation in which Mr. Knight purportedly issued a threat to Dr. Zyapkov's cat.

 

Judge Jan Luba KC acknowledged that a previous owner of the flat had effectively seized the cupboard in question, but ruled that Dr. Zyapkov and Mrs. Grigore had no rightful claim to it.

 

Mr. Knight, a 72-year-old financial consultant, and his wife had resided in their home since 1995. In contrast, Dr. Zyapkov, an analyst at the Bank of America, and Mrs. Grigore, a naval engineer, had acquired their flat in 2018.

 

The court was informed that the Knights had ceased using the space for storage around 2010. It wasn't until Dr. Zyapkov and Mrs. Grigore offered them a tour of their flat in 2018 that they realized the cupboard had been "unlawfully incorporated" into the neighboring property.

 

Ultimately, the judge decreed that the cupboard remained within the Knights' property title and dismissed harassment and nuisance claims against them. He further ordered Dr. Zyapkov and Mrs. Grigore to cover the Knights' legal costs, totaling more than £50,000, in addition to their own legal expenses, which amounted to approximately £52,000.