Care home executive Sukhjit Bains was accustomed to negotiating tough deals. Even so, he could hardly have expected the extraordinary bargain that emerged from a property auction in Birmingham.
In 2013, he bought a three-bedroom house from Birmingham City Council for £395,000. A conveyancing blunder then appeared to give him something far more valuable: the adjoining George Dixon Primary School.
The error occurred when Mr Bains’s solicitor submitted the wrong form of contract while completing the purchase. The document mistakenly included the school, and the council’s conveyancer approved it without spotting the mistake.
As a result, the 50-year-old was recorded as owning not only the house but also George Dixon Primary School, in what appears to have been a major administrative failure by Birmingham City Council.
In theory, the error could have allowed Mr Bains to remove the school’s teachers and pupils, sell the site for millions of pounds or even demolish the building.
A legal expert who reviewed documents relating to the dispute told the Daily Mail: “I don’t think I’ve ever come across anything like this in 40 years. It’s the most incredible legal cock-up I can recall.”
Sukhjit Bains bought a house from Birmingham City Council through his care home company, NH Care Ltd, for £395,000 in 2013. A remarkable conveyancing mistake appears to have included George Dixon Primary School in the same sale, as shown in this aerial view
The property is on Fountain Road in Edgbaston, with its rear garden adjoining the school’s playing fields. It was originally built as a caretaker’s cottage, a detail believed to have contributed to the conveyancing mix-up
The ownership problem emerged about a decade later, when the school considered seeking academy status. Mr Bains initially agreed to return the property but later stopped responding to the council and refused to sign documents sent to him
Parents of the 324 pupils at George Dixon Primary are believed to have been unaware that the school was caught up in the extraordinary property dispute, which began 13 years ago but only recently came to light.
Birmingham City Council, which declared itself effectively bankrupt in 2023, has now taken legal steps to reclaim ownership of the school.
Mr Bains, who operates the care provider NH Care Ltd, is thought not to have known that the sale had inadvertently transferred the valuable school site to his company. The property deal involved a three-bedroom semi-detached house bought at auction in 2013.
He and the company’s two other directors reportedly discovered the mistake only after the council contacted them last year and asked for the school to be returned.
According to Birmingham City Council, Mr Bains initially agreed to correct the situation after officials explained what had happened. The council says he later stopped responding and declined to sign the paperwork required to transfer the property back.
Officials say they were subsequently unable to reach him by telephone or post. They also claim that repeated visits to his office failed to locate him.
When approached by the Daily Mail this week, however, Mr Bains answered the door. He declined to comment on the dispute.
Birmingham City Council has now brought proceedings against Mr Bains’s company and Lloyds Bank, which provided his financing, in the High Court in London. The council is seeking a formal order returning the school to its ownership.
The authority has also stressed that neither the school building nor its playing fields could be sold without approval from the Secretary of State.
The house at the centre of the dispute stands on Fountain Road in Edgbaston. Its back garden borders the playing fields belonging to George Dixon Primary School.
The property was first constructed as accommodation for the school’s caretaker before being converted into a family home. In the early 1960s, its childless owners left it to Birmingham City Council in their wills.
It was then converted into a children’s home and used by the council in that capacity before it was finally closed and sold to Mr Bains in 2013.
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Strangely though his company has never utilised the property.
This land registry document shows the school and house at the centre of the mix-up in green
Despite Mr Bains operating other care homes in Birmingham and Leicester, the house has remained empty and is now boarded up.
Neighbours in Fountain Road – where properties sell for up to £500,000 – complain that it has instead become a hub for antisocial behaviour.
A neighbour, who has lived on the road since 1954, told the Daily Mail the property had become ‘overrun by prostitutes and druggies’.
The mistake that led to the case is thought to have come about after Mr Bains’s lawyers drafted a contract to be signed by the council but used the wrong form.
That was because the school and house are both registered under the same land registry number and the form which was used, a TR1, only transfers all of the property registered under a number.
Another form, a TP1, should have been used which only transfers a specific portion of a land parcel.
Despite submitting the incorrect form, the council’s lawyers didn’t notice but signed and executed it, in effect handing Mr Bains ownership of the school for free.
The error was only uncovered over a decade later on April 12, 2024, when the school was looking into becoming an academy – and learned that they didn’t actually own the building.
Birmingham, which was run by Labour for 16 years until a coalition of Liberal Democrats, Greens and Independents took over control earlier this year, has faced intense criticism for perceived mismanagement in recent years particularly over bin strikes and its dire finances. It only finally balanced its books this year.
Mr Bains’s company has also faced criticism.
Care home inspectors found residents with learning difficulties at one NH Care home had been subjected to ‘abusive behaviour and threats’.
The Care Quality Commission found physical, verbal and emotional abuse were ‘commonplace’ at Summerfield House in Birmingham in 2021.
The George Dixon Primary School is at the centre of this legal claim as the council is fighting to regain ownership of the building it inexplicably gave away in the property deal 13 years ago
The primary school has also been strongly criticised recently.
It has 324 pupils despite only having capacity for 300, an Ofsted report from February said.
The inspection found that it needed attention and urgent improvement and a large proportion of disadvantaged pupils did not achieve well and were particularly weak in reading, writing and maths while many children do not attend regularly and many remain unsure about British values.
A spokesperson for Birmingham said of the school fiasco: ‘The council is pursuing the appropriate legal process to rectify the position. As the matter is currently the subject of ongoing legal proceedings, it would be inappropriate to comment further.’
A solicitor for Mr Bains pointed out that the 2013 property transfer was to his company NH Care Limited, and not to him as an individual.
Lloyds Bank has been contacted.