George Dixon Primary School, Image: Pentagon Play
Birmingham City Council sold a three-bedroom former caretaker’s house at auction in 2013 for £395,000, and a paperwork error meant the sale also transferred ownership of George Dixon Primary School in Edgbaston. The mistake went unnoticed for 11 years while the school carried on as normal. It came to light on 12 April 2024, when the school looked into becoming an academy and learned that the council no longer owned the site.
The council has since launched High Court proceedings in London against NH Care Ltd, the care provider that bought the house, and Lloyds Bank, its lender.
The case lands as the council, which effectively declared itself bankrupt in September 2023, works through a large programme of property disposals. A sale that was meant to dispose of a former caretaker’s house instead produced a dispute over a primary school, and a High Court claim to unwind it more than a decade later.
The case in the High Court
Finally, it says that selling school land and playing fields requires the consent of the Secretary of State, which was never obtained. A council spokesman said it is “pursuing the appropriate legal process to rectify the position.” The council is asking the court to correct the register and restore its ownership of the school. By its account, the original contract covered only the house, so the transfer document did not reflect what was agreed. It also argues the mistake was mutual, since the incorrect form was drafted by the buyer’s lawyers and executed by the council’s conveyancer.