Tenants told to leave as 'building will close due to safety concerns'

Mystery surrounds a Liverpool city centre student accommodation building after students were told to leave by the company who manage it. A dispute has arisen after a letter appeared at the entrance to the Arndale House student accommodation on London Road in Liverpool city centre from the building's property managers, Urban Evolution.

Addressing the tenants, the letter said the building had to “close imminently due to significant fire safety concerns raised by Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service.” These concerns, they said, included flammable cladding, a malfunctioning fire alarm system and broken fire doors.

However the building's owners and other companies involved with the accommodation say they do not support the letter or a move to close the building, and the fire service have told the ECHO they have "not stated that the premises needs to close at this stage."

Urban Evolution argues further funds are needed to address the issues, which it claims have not been provided by leaseholders. Urban Evolution is the owner of the Right to Manage company (RTM) at Arndale House, which means it can manage the building.

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A company named Rockwell is the freeholder of the building, and is represented by Estates and Management (E&M). It has claimed an attempt to close Arndale House by anyone other than the freeholder would be illegal.

A spokesperson for E&M said: “The safety of the residents is of utmost importance to us and the landlord. The RTM company has no legal authority to order closure of the building.

“Only government agencies, such as Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service do. We can confirm Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service have informed us they have made no such order for Arndale House and that they do not intend to do so.

“Accordingly, we wrote to a representative of the Managing Agent and RTM Company in July to inform them that any unilateral action by them to close the building would be unlawful.”

Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service has said it has not asked for the building to be closed, as the issues raised in its inspection of the building do not risk serious injury or death. However, a follow-up inspection will take place..

Construction on Arndale House was completed in September 2013. It was this week still being advertised on Urban Evolution’s website as “the ideal accommodation for student life”. Prices for an en-suite apartment start from £125 per week.

The letter to residents states that management has been left “with no choice but to proceed with the closure of the building to ensure that no one is put at unnecessary risk.”

Urban Evolution has insisted it is putting “safety before profit and correctly informing all parties of the challenges being faced and inevitable outcomes looming”.

The firm says it wants to avoid a huge number of students moving in and then being told they need to vacate the building. It said it expects to see facilities to “quickly become redundant”. When the ECHO visited Arndale House on Wednesday, prospective residents were being shown around.

Kevin Longshaw, who is a manager in community risk management at Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service (MFRS), said: “A fire safety audit was conducted at Arndale House on 18th July 2024.

“A number of issues were identified and fed back to the responsible person in a letter referred to as a 2c (revisit) letter, which is not a formal enforcement or prohibition notice.

“If issues identified had been significant (risk of serious injury or death) MFRS would have issued either an enforcement notice or in the worst of cases a prohibition notice, neither of which were issued at Arndale House.

“The purpose of the letter was to allow a period of time (six weeks in this case) to address the identified concerns. Given that six week period has now passed, MFRS will undertake a follow up inspection which will be a joint effort with colleagues from Liverpool City Council.

“MFRS has not stated that the premises needs to close at this stage and the decision to ask tenants to leave and close the premises has been made solely by the responsible person.

“Letters posted on the building in recent days have not been an accurate representation of the situation nor is the inference that the premises is classified as a high rise.”

X1, who are one of the leaseholders, have said they are in dispute with Urban Evolution over its leadership of the building’s Right to Manage (RTM) company. A spokesperson for X1 said: “X1 Lettings have no involvement in this matter.

“The notice has been uploaded by Urban Evolution, who are the managing agents for this building. There is some discontentment between the RTM company members and the appointed management company.

“There is no immediate need to close the building - there are recommendations that the fire police have requested the management company to put in place.

“The RTM group is working on a strategy to put in place a management company who will undertake these - but note the fact that there is no enforcement notice demanding the immediate closure of the building.” Liverpool City Council declined to comment when approached.

The ECHO understands commercial premises under the student accommodation in the building are not affected.