Author Evelyn Waugh’s picturesque Cotswolds mansion goes on sale for $3million – but its current ‘tenants from hell’ won’t let prospective buyers take a look!
- Eight-bedroom property is in the village of Stinchcombe, Gloucestershire
- Prospective buyers unable to view Piers Court as tenants are refusing to leave
- Waugh bought it for £3,600 in 1937 and wrote Brideshead Revisited there
With rent bills rocketing, it is little wonder tenants paying £250 a year to live at a Cotswolds mansion once owned by Evelyn Waugh are reluctant to leave.
But their refusal to do so is frustrating attempts to sell the property, which has been put up for auction with a guide price of £400,000 less than the £2.9million it was sold for just four years ago.
Prospective buyers are unable to view Piers Court because the current tenants are refusing to leave and will not let estate agents or buyers in.
The eight-bedroom property is in the village of Stinchcombe, Gloucestershire. Novelist Waugh bought it for £3,600 in 1937.
Prospective buyers are unable to view Piers Court because the current tenants are refusing to leave and will not let estate agents or buyers in. The auction of the property takes place on December 15
Evelyn Waugh (pictured) lived at Piers Court for 19 years and wrote novels including Brideshead Revisited, Officers and Gentlemen and Men at Arms in the library there
The auction of Piers Court takes place on December 15.
The auctioneers have warned prospective buyers: ‘The property is occupied under a Common Law Tenancy at a rent of £250 per annum.
‘A notice to quit was served on the occupant on 19 August 2022 and a copy of such notice was affixed to the property gate on 22 August 2022.
‘Prospective purchasers should take their own legal advice regarding this and will be deemed to bid accordingly.’
Waugh lived at Piers Court for 19 years and wrote novels including Brideshead Revisited, Officers and Gentlemen and Men at Arms in the library there.
In 2019 it was sold for £2.9million to a company controlled by Jason Blain, a former BBC executive.
Mr Blain bought the mansion with a £2.1million loan from the London bank C Hoare & Co.
In January this year, it emerged that Mr Blain was being sued by the five-star Mandarin Oriental hotel near Hyde Park over an alleged unpaid bill.
According to documents filed at the High Court, he allegedly booked a £4,275-a-night penthouse for six days but stayed for eight months.
In 2019, the home was sold for £2.9million to a company controlled by Jason Blain (pictured above in 2009 with producer Deborah Schindler), a former BBC executive
The eight-bedroom property is in the village of Stinchcombe, Gloucestershire. Novelist Evelyn Waugh bought it for £3,600 in 1937. It has been put up for auction with a guide price of £400,000 less than the £2.9million it was sold for just four years ago
Mr Blain was accused of still owing £731,500 of a £1.25million bill, alongside other fees such as £55,000 in service costs, £30,100 for valet parking and £25,497 for room service.
He was said to have emailed the luxury hotel in June last year saying: ‘The bill is of course my debt and this will be reversed at a future point.’
Mr Blain, who lives in Perthshire, Scotland, was taken to court in November 2021 by Torsten van Dullemen, the Mandarin’s general manager.
They claim he paid back £508,500 of the bill, with the most recent coming on June 9, 2021, for £25,000.
The claimant said he emailed area director of finance Allan Collier to admit to owing the money and said he would pay it ‘at a future point’.
But the Mandarin was then seeking the repayment for £740,832.01.