A rental landlord seeking compensation from a building owner after a fire broke out in a restaurant below flats it was renting out has lost its fight in the courts nine years after the blaze.

The fire, liability for which was accepted by the owner of the restaurant at 228 York Road in Battersea, London (pictured), gutted or extensively damaged the three floors above the property which at the time contained seven apartments.

After the dramatic blaze on New Year’s Day in 2010, which saw 40 fire fighters rescue two tenants from its top floors, the residents of all the properties had to move out and were collectively awarded over £200,000 in compensation by the building’s insurer.

The flats’ leaseholder Palliser Ltd, which holds a 999-year lease on the property, has been seeking compensation of nearly £4 million from freeholder Fate Ltd, which also owned the restaurant below. This included the £225,000 cost of refurbishing the properties plus ‘lost rent’.

But in the judgement for the case Andrew Burrows QC has said that Palliser is only due £8,500.

“The claim for loss of profits fails because the claimant falls a long way short of proving on the balance of probabilities that, but for the fire, it would have sold 228 York Road in 2010 or that it would have gone on to make the profits (of £3,803,721 plus interest) as set out in the schedule,” he said.

During the case it emerged that Fate Ltd had under-valued the property as a whole and that its insurance did not cover the floors above the restaurant. After the fire Fate Ltd went into liquidation and it took seven years for the restaurant to re-open.

Read the judgement in full.