Chelsea legend in court over ban on using sun terrace at £3m London home

Premier League-winning former Chelsea goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini is locked in a court fight after being banned from using a sun terrace outside his £3m London home.

Mr Cudicini, who made 216 appearances for Chelsea between 1999 and 2009, is being sued by Haya Property Ltd, the owners of the freehold on his multimillion-pound Kensington mews house, in a row that the 52-year-old says started when he complained about the company installing noisy air-con units near his bedroom window.

The house, which the Blues legend bought for £1.75m in 2006 while at the peak of his Premier League career, is located just yards from Hyde Park and the Royal Albert Hall and under two miles from Chelsea FC’s Stamford Bridge home, where he works as head of talent at the club's “pathway programme”.

Milan-born Mr Cudicini, who was part of the Chelsea squad during the 2004-05 season when they won their first Premier League title, has been taken to court over claims he breached the lease terms for his home in Jay Mews, South Kensington, by converting a rear section of flat roof into a sun terrace.

The freeholder claims his use of the compact terrace space – which, according to planning records, is less than two metres long and wide – is “a trespass and/or breach of covenant”.

However, the former football star's lawyers insist his adaptation of the terrace, which is accessed off the first-floor lounge, is in line with planning permission granted by the City of Westminster for works at the house before he moved in.

Mr Cudicini started his professional career at Serie A side AC Milan in 1992, but struggled to break into the first team and, after a stint at Lazio, moved to Chelsea in 1999. He became the club's number one goalkeeper and was voted Chelsea's player of the year for the 2001-02 season, before winning the Premier League as an understudy to Petr Cech under Jose Mourinho in 2005 and 2006. Mr Cudicini later moved to Tottenham Hotspur in 2009 and played his final professional games at Los Angeles Galaxy in 2013, before hanging up his boots.

Mr Cudicini first returned to Chelsea as a club ambassador and assistant to the new first-team boss Antonio Conte in 2016, and is now the club's head of talent and pathway programme.

During a short pre-trial hearing last week, the former footballer's barrister, Mark Warwick KC, said is client had embarked on a refurb project after buying the property, which is now valued online at over £3m, including opening up the terrace.

The court heard that Mr Cudicini purchased the property on 30 June 2006, “with the benefit of the terrace permission” for £1.75m. His barrister told Judge Olivia-Faith Dobbie, at Central London County Court, that in about 2007 to 2008, his client had work to the house “carried out in accordance with the terrace permission, creating a terrace”.

“The work was carried out openly and with the knowledge and/or consent of the previous landlords,” Mr Warwick KC, said, adding that thereafter, Mr Cudicini has “openly used the terrace as part of the house”.

According to council documents, Mr Cudicini also went on to secure planning permission to create a new basement beneath the mews, to include an en-suite guest room and TV/play room.

Mr Cudicini – whose 999-year lease on the house is held at a rate of “one red rose per annum if demanded” – now faces claims of trespass and breach of the lease relating to the terrace.

Haya Property is also seeking an injunction, barring the alleged misuse of the terrace, plus compensation of up to £25,000.

Mr Cudicini, while maintaining the claim against him has no legal basis, suggests it was triggered by his landlords’ overreaction to him complaining about them placing noisy air-con units near his bedroom.

His KC described the breach allegation as “unjustified” and argued: “Further and in any event, the allegation was their unjustified riposte to Mr Cudicini’s earlier complaint to the City of Westminster that Haya Property had wrongly placed three noisy air conditioning units next to his master bedroom.”

He told the judge that the 2006 permission granted to a previous owner allowed for the “the replacement of a rear first floor window with French doors – and use of flat roof and lightwell as a terrace”.

The former goalie further claims that the landlords in place before Haya Property took over the freehold in 2015 were given formal notice of the terrace planning application and also agreed to it.

In court, Mr Cudicini’s barrister said the former keeper has “personal knowledge” of the history of his house from the date of purchase in 2006 and has carried out further enquiries since the case was launched against him, which enabled him to put together a “complete defence”.

Mr Warwick KC said Haya Property acquired the freehold in November 2015 “by a transfer made between the previous freeholders and Haya Properties,” by which Haya was transferred part of the freehold title.

The case ended up in court before Judge Dobbie in a five-minute pre-trial hearing dealing with costs budgets for the forthcoming trial whose date has yet to be fixed.

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