New 2013 £3m flat with no broadband (until late 2016)

[MrMobodies]

I found another interesting article and just searched and no mention.

I find it strange how this in the news now and not at the time when he had no broadband or phone line unless the proceedings to sue is slow but for £3m who would want a flat with no broadband, no phone line? by the looks of it with poor phone signals.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/millionaire-travel-tycoon-sues-luxury-flat-owner-100k-over-lack-of-broadband-a4308436.html

Millionaire travel tycoon sues luxury flat owner for £100k over lack of broadband
Mr Shalson claims he endured “about a thousand days” of misery without wifi

TRISTAN KIRK

A millionaire travel tycoon who resorted to using a library and internet cafe to get online when his apartment did not have broadband is suing for almost £100,000 in damages. Stephen Shalson, 70, says he was promised his £2.95 million deluxe flat on the 30th floor of The Heron, Barbican, would be “wired for Sky TV and internet” from the moment he moved in, in February 2014. But Mr Shalson said he was infuriated when he discovered he could not get online and had to use the library, his brother’s home and an internet cafe in Kings Cross to access the internet. The businessman, who once ran a company selling Concorde holidays, claims he endured “about a thousand days” of misery until a Hyperoptic connection was installed in October 2016.

He is now suing the freehold owners of the building, Heron Residences LLP, for £97,300, accusing them of breach of contract by allegedly failing to provide proper internet facilities.

According to defence papers lodged at Central London County Court, Heron argues it was not in the terms of the sale contract or Mr Shalson’s lease on the three-bedroom apartment that it would be wired for broadband.

Mr Shalson’s barrister, Daniel Goodkin, told the court: “When he moved in the apartment had no internet facility of any sort, including fibre broadband or Hyperoptic ...

"Given the price of the apartment, the fact that it was a new luxury development and its situation in central London, it was so obvious as not to require express statement that the apartment would have a good quality internet service available in all rooms from the time he purchased it.”

Mr Shalson claims he had to use his own 4G connection to try to access the internet, but his connection was so slow he could not send or receive emails.

In this article:
https://metro.co.uk/2019/12/09/owner-3000000-flat-sues-developer-didnt-broadband-11446375/

The Barbican building – where a penthouse flat once went on sale for £18 million – offered a range of high-end facilities, including a private members’ club, roof terrace, restaurant, and valet parking

High end facilities  unless they mean the facilities such as the library.

[Halcyon]

He could afford to take legal action, but couldn't be bothered just setting up a cellular connection connected to a regular Ethernet network?
Besides, if it's anything like Australia, our cellular network speeds are many times faster and more reliable than our fixed wire infrastructure.

Something smells like bullshit to me.

[senso]

He could just pay the telco to roll out fiber, its not that expensive, much less when you have 3 mil for a flat.

[MrMobodies]

He could afford to take legal action, but couldn't be bothered just setting up a cellular connection connected to a regular Ethernet network?

Something smells like bullshit to me.

£3m for a leasehold apartment he doesn't even own tells me that he must own a lot more than that and with that sort of money and time there shouldn't be a problem.

Can afford lawyers to sue but didn't check physically check the apartment what infrastructure was already there before he moved in and waited this long to sue.


In their marketing materials they did mention it:

https://web.archive.org/web/20120614031338/http://www.theheron.co.uk/the-apartments/specification

Archive.org 14/06/2012

AV, telephone and data systems
Cat 5 cabling for digital TV, DAB and FM radio, telephone and data services.
Wired for audio with flush ceiling speakers and iPod docking system.
Principal rooms will be wired for surround sound to low level speaker sockets, enabling speaker installation for a home cinema experience.
Sky HD/Freeview enabled.
Touch screen control where applicable.
Wiring to telephone points is provided to all principal rooms.
Pre wiring to data sockets enabling multi-room broadband connection.
Pre wired for automated blinds where applicable.

https://web.archive.org/web/20120708080203/http://www.theheron.co.uk/services
Disclaimer:

The Vendors and their joint selling agents Alan Selby & Partners and King Sturge give notice that this website is produced for the general promotion of the apartments at The Heron only and for no other purpose. Particulars are set out as a general outline for the guidance of intending purchasers and do not form part of an offer or contract. The floor plates are artistic impressions of design drawings to illustrate possible furniture layouts. Any areas, measurements or distances referred to are given as a guide only and are not precise. The photographic images are for illustrative purposes only. This website has been prepared in good faith to give an overview of the apartments at The Heron and is believed to be correct as at the date of publication. Any intending purchasers cannot rely on it as a statement or representation of fact. Design, layout and specification may be subject to variation.

He didn't make sure that the broadband infrastructure he wanted was installed before moving in and apartments can vary.

[station240]

He could afford to take legal action, but couldn't be bothered just setting up a cellular connection connected to a regular Ethernet network?

Something smells like bullshit to me.

£3m for a leasehold apartment he doesn't even own tells me that he must own a lot more than that and with that sort of money and time there shouldn't be a problem.

Can afford lawyers to sue but didn't check physically check the apartment what infrastructure was already there before he moved in and waited this long to sue.


In their marketing materials they did mention it:

https://web.archive.org/web/20120614031338/http://www.theheron.co.uk/the-apartments/specification

Archive.org 14/06/2012

AV, telephone and data systems
Cat 5 cabling for digital TV, DAB and FM radio, telephone and data services.
Wiring to telephone points is provided to all principal rooms.
Pre wiring to data sockets enabling multi-room broadband connection.

The usual pre-wired for highspeed internet BS real estate claims.
There could just be a blue cable hanging out of the wall, with nothing at the other end to even connect it to.
But hey, it 'ready' just call the broadband provider of your choice, watch them come out and dig a hole in the front yard as the cheapscape developers sometimes don't even bury a conduit.

In multi story apartment buildings, it's a huge task to wire it. Often involving running fibre to each floor, if a telco is consulted during planning/construction then there aren't delays getting broadband to residents. For £3m I'd expect the developers to do that, and pay the expenses involved.

[eti]

1) It's London.
2) London is a drab, alienating, vacuous dump.
3) People who pay £3M for *a flat* in that place, golly, that's worse than a stretch of jailtime.

[vk6zgo]

1) It's London.
2) London is a drab, alienating, vacuous dump.
3) People who pay £3M for *a flat* in that place, golly, that's worse than a stretch of jailtime.

A trifle harsh!

[eti]

1) It's London.
2) London is a drab, alienating, vacuous dump.
3) People who pay £3M for *a flat* in that place, golly, that's worse than a stretch of jailtime.

A trifle harsh!

Truth is truth; have you been there? I used to go weekly, my opinion remains.

[tom66]

1) It's London.
2) London is a drab, alienating, vacuous dump.
3) People who pay £3M for *a flat* in that place, golly, that's worse than a stretch of jailtime.

You're not wrong.

A very close family friend earns three times as much as me as an IT consultant.  He works in London.  Owns a £750k house with his wife who also works various jobs.  He struggles to make ends meet sometimes.

Spends 2 hours a day, each way, commuting to his job in the centre.  Of course, no sucker can afford a flat near where they work, so they all take multiple modes of transport, which itself isn't cheap.  And no one drives in London -- there's too much traffic!

No kind of life in my opinion. 

[Xenoamor]

1) It's London.
2) London is a drab, alienating, vacuous dump.
3) People who pay £3M for *a flat* in that place, golly, that's worse than a stretch of jailtime.

You're not wrong.

A very close family friend earns three times as much as me as an IT consultant.  He works in London.  Owns a £750k house with his wife who also works various jobs.  He struggles to make ends meet sometimes.

Spends 2 hours a day, each way, commuting to his job in the centre.  Of course, no sucker can afford a flat near where they work, so they all take multiple modes of transport, which itself isn't cheap.  And no one drives in London -- there's too much traffic!

No kind of life in my opinion.

The only way I could ever justify that is if you could retire very comfortably at 40

[vk6zgo]

1) It's London.
2) London is a drab, alienating, vacuous dump.
3) People who pay £3M for *a flat* in that place, golly, that's worse than a stretch of jailtime.

A trifle harsh!

Truth is truth; have you been there? I used to go weekly, my opinion remains.

Many more years ago than I like to contemplate during a "working holiday".
I did notice that not many people where I was living in Southampton had any great enthusiasm for London.

Of course, I went & saw all the well known sights, but really, unless you were of the theatre going milieu, it did pall after a while.

I remember one weekend driving up to London to buy some "Colonel Sander's Kentucky fried Chicken".( KFC to all you "Yutes")
Back in the 1970's there were, to my knowledge, two such outlets in the UK, compared to 6 or more in Perth WA.

The KFC was cold, & served with chips, which they didn't use in Oz at that time, & I was astounded at how quiet central London was.
You pretty much could have "fired a cannon down the Strand without hitting anybody."

That said, although London does seem to suffer from a "cultural cringe", comparing itself with Paris, my impression is it is every bit as attractive.
Of the limited number of European capitals I've seen, though, only Rome seems to live up to the hype.

[tom66]

London is a beautiful city to visit, and due to proximities of relatives I generally find myself that way most years.  However, visit is about as far as I'd take it.  Walking around, you notice the pollution, both noise and exhaust,  that permeates the entire city and, in my case at least causes my throat to flare up.  The people are, outside of close friends and relatives,  entirely uninterested in anyone else (you can slip and fall and no one will offer a helping hand) and to an extent, quite rude, although more in the British manner of not really caring than being aggressively rude.  In London,  everyone is rushing and bustling past, because no one gets anywhere there without stepping on some toes.  Rush hour in London is to be especially avoided in a busy Tube station.

The museums, tourist traps and bridges are all well worth a look once in one's life, but besides those, there is nothing terribly exciting about London: it is just ~0.7% of the land area of the UK, where 1/6th of our population lives.    A lot of the problems in London can be put down to that ratio.

[eti]

London is a Mecca for the perpetually self-interested egotist. If you've ever made the fatal mistake of sacrificing a single second of this precious life watching "The Apprentice", you'll find London summed up in a nutshell.

Comparing London to Paris, by the way, is so very ludicrous as to be akin to comparing American squeezy "cheese" to genuine English Stilton.

[vk6zgo]

London is a Mecca for the perpetually self-interested egotist. If you've ever made the fatal mistake of sacrificing a single second of this precious life watching "The Apprentice", you'll find London summed up in a nutshell.

Comparing London to Paris, by the way, is so very ludicrous as to be akin to comparing American squeezy "cheese" to genuine English Stilton.

Yeah, American cheese is edible!

Maybe I saw Paris on a couple of bad days--the weather was terrible, everything was grey, drizzly, & disgusting, just like London.

Coming from a city where, even in the winter we have a lot of sunny days, & when we do have bad weather, it isn't namby-pamby drizzle, but real, red blooded hammering down rain, (or sometimes, just for a change, hail), which blows sideways & searches you out under shelter, it  made me feel depressed.

Objectively, they are both great cities with attractive bits --- it's just that they wear off quickly.
Rome is much more my speed!

[BravoV]

... there is nothing terribly exciting about London: it is just ~0.7% of the land area of the UK, where 1/6th of our population lives.    A lot of the problems in London can be put down to that ratio.

Read it somewhere, that the 1/6th population you mentioned, is feeding the whole country, cmiiw.