Millionaire landlords’ £100k legal bill after suing tenants for ‘smoking cigars in flat’
A MILLIONAIRE couple have lost a £100,000 court battle after accusing their US business tycoon tenant of ruining their soft furnishings with the smell of his cigar smoke.
PR boss Nick Boakes, 65, and his husband Harald Denker ended up in a bitter dispute with Jonathan Hagmaier and his wife, Mary, who were accused of polluting the luxury London flat and leaving a £9,500 rug “infested with moths and snails”.
Mr Boakes had rented out the “upmarket” £50,000-a-year basement flat of his multi-million pound Grade II listed Victorian house in Warwick Avenue, Little Venice, to the American power couple in 2018.
The Hagmaiers, who own more than 100 properties as part of an investment scheme, were based in the UK for two years.
They were charmed by the “Italianate” building in a street where
properties sell for up to £10million, bu less so by their neighbours. Clashes erupted between Mrs Hagmaier and Mr Boakes’s former fashion model husband Mr Denker, 58.
Mrs Hagmaier told Central London County Court: “Living underneath Mr Denker and Mr Boakes was one of the most unpleasant experiences I could
imagine. Mr Denker would come into our flat with armfuls of things and just set them down, saying ‘this goes with the flat’. We filled up wardrobes and cupboards with his things, it was quite a challenge.”
She added:
“He was simply using our place as a storage room.” But Mr Boakes and Mr Denker claimed Mr Hagmaier’s cigar habit caused them to suffer “coughing attacks, headaches and nightmares”. After moving out, the Hagmaiers sued for the return of their £6,270 deposit. Mr Boakes, who is non-executive chairman at PR consultancy MRM, countersued as landlord for £81,538 compensation for damage. After five days in court, Judge David Mayall awarded Mr Boakes just £2,952 in damages and left him to pay the hefty legal costs of the trial, which lawyers said would be at least £100,000.
He also ruled that the Hagmaiers, who accepted they should pay towards a deep clean, were entitled to their deposit back.
Also he rejected a claim for damage to the rug, which Mr Boakes said had been put into a damp storage area.