Coventry businessman's £1.5m mansion SINKS into a mine shaft

[dutchman]

A judge has ruled that the Coal Authority must pay for Tidbury Castle Farm, in Corley, to be demolished and rebuilt



A wealthy businessman who saw his £1.5m 'palace' subside into an underground mine shaft is in line for almost £1m compensation so he can rebuild it.

Ian White's 26-acre Tidbury Castle Farm, near Coventry, boasts a cinema, games room complex and two large garages.

The 48-year-old, whose company recycles all of Coventry's domestic waste, described his home as a 'modern, well-insulated palace'.

But, just two years after the architect-designed house was built in 2008, its walls were cracked and its floors and window frames crooked.

The problem was caused by mine workings almost half a mile below ground, said Judge Elizabeth Cooke.

"Extensive cracking" began to appear in the interior and exterior walls of Mr White's pristine home in 2010.

The walls were "no longer vertical" and even his electric security gates stopped working properly.

The floors, once level to within 3mm, were now so noticeably sloped that doors would "swing open or closed of their own accord".

Mr White lived elsewhere for a while, "following the breakdown of his marriage", said the judge.

But, when he returned in 2013, he was "astonished and very upset" to see the extent of the damage.

Mr White, who is managing director of Tom White Waste Limited, claimed over £950,000 damages from the Coal Authority.

And now Judge Cooke has agreed with him that the only feasible option is to demolish and rebuild the main house.

The judge was "wholly unimpressed" by the authority's arguments that it was not liable to compensate the businessman.

And she rejected claims that spending any more than £68,000 on repairs would be "extravagant".

It would be possible to "jack up" the house, but that would risk further damage being caused, she told the Upper Tribunal.

And Mr White was entitled to have his home returned to the same state it was in before the subsidence damage occurred.

He understandably "wants his buildings to be level" and the only realistic way of achieving that was to start all over again.

Mr White was legally entitled to have all the damage "made good to his reasonable satisfaction" at the authority's expense.

And the judge ruled: "The only way to put right the tilt is to demolish and rebuild...it is not extravagant to do so".

Judge Cooke ordered the authority to pay him £670,000 within 28 days as a down-payment on his final award.