Care-home executive Sukhjit Bains was no stranger to tough negotiations. Even so, he could hardly have expected one property deal to deliver far more than he paid for.
In 2013, he bought a three-bedroom house at auction from Birmingham City Council for £395,000. Buried in the paperwork, however, was an extraordinary bonus: the sale also appeared to include a primary school.
The blunder occurred when Mr Bains’s solicitor submitted the wrong form of contract while completing the purchase. The document mistakenly listed George Dixon Primary School as part of the transaction, and the council’s conveyancer approved it without spotting the error.
As a result, the 50-year-old businessman, through his company, became the registered owner not only of the semi-detached house but also of George Dixon Primary School.
In theory, the extraordinary mistake could give Mr Bains the power to evict the school’s teachers and pupils, sell the site for millions of pounds or even demolish the building.
A legal expert who reviewed documents connected with the dispute told Our News Outlet: ‘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.’
Mr Bains, who runs care provider NH Care Ltd, is believed not to have realised that his company had inadvertently acquired the valuable school site when the house was purchased at auction in 2013.
He and the company’s two other directors reportedly learned of the mistake only after the council contacted them last year to request that the school be transferred back.
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 error meant George Dixon Primary School was included in the sale.
The Fountain Road property stands in Edgbaston, with its rear garden adjoining the school’s playing fields. It was originally built as the caretaker’s cottage, a detail believed to have contributed to the conveyancing mistake.
The error emerged about a decade later as the school explored academy status. Mr Bains initially agreed to return the property, but later stopped responding to the council and refused to sign the documents it sent him.
The 324 children attending George Dixon Primary School are believed to have remained unaware that the institution was mistakenly transferred to a private company 13 years ago.
Birmingham City Council, which became one of the UK’s largest local authorities to declare bankruptcy in 2023, has now launched legal proceedings to recover ownership of the school.
According to the council, Mr Bains initially agreed to hand the school back after officials explained what had happened. He later stopped responding and declined to sign the paperwork required to complete the transfer.
The authority says it has since been unable to reach him by telephone or post. Officials also failed to find him in person despite making repeated visits to his office.
However, when Our News Outlet visited his home this week, Mr Bains answered the door but declined to comment on the dispute.
Birmingham City Council has brought a claim in the High Court in London against Mr Bains’s company and Lloyds Bank, which provided his lending, seeking a formal order returning the school to the authority.
The council has also stressed that the school and its playing fields could not be sold without approval from the Secretary of State.
The house at the centre of the dispute is on Fountain Road in Edgbaston. Its rear garden runs alongside the playing fields belonging to George Dixon Primary School.
The building began life as accommodation for the school’s caretaker before being converted into a family home. In the early 1960s, its childless owners left the property 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.
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 Our News Outlet 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 spokesman 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.
