Owners of an 18th century mansion featured in Channel 4’s ‘Help! We Bought a Hotel’ have put the property up for sale amid a bitter legal row and court case.
Four friends used their savings and bought Llanerchydol Hall – a Grade II listed gothic-style mansion – for £1.3million ahead of renovating it on the show.
The hall located in Welshpool, Wales, appeared on national television in July 2024 but the project was stopped by Powys Council who claimed the improvements were illegal.
Two of the developers, Benjamin Sutterby and Rajneet Kaur Saini had already been refused retrospective planning permission in June 2023, but work continued, forcing the council to serve a temporary stop notice.
Ancient monuments body Cadw – the Welsh equivalent to English Heritage – said members of the public had also raised concerns about activity at the site.
But days before the dispute was to enter the courts, the building was put up for sale for £1.95million, after the council charged the developers with a series of offences over the controversial works.
The charges relate to building regulation breaches including, failing to submit plans for approval, failing to give notice before starting work and not applying to regularise the unauthorised works already carried out.
Benjamin Sutterby, George Dodge, Richard Stokes and Rajneet Kaur Saini appeared in court on Friday but the case was adjourned and no date was set for the next hearing.
Four friends used their savings and bought Llanerchydol Hall – a Grade II listed gothic-style mansion – for £1.3million ahead of renovating it on the show
The hall located in Welshpool, Wales, appeared on Channel in July 2024 but the project was stopped by Powys Council who claimed the improvements were illegal
Balfour estate agents said the mansion, which the developers invested more than £2million into, was a ‘masterpiece of Gothic Revival Architecture’ commanding ‘an elevated position overlooking the Montgomeryshire and Shropshire Hills.’
The 11.63 acre estate includes a Japanese water garden, a mile-long private drive and several letting suites – among them the Egypt, India, Sage and Slate rooms.
The Channel 4 series ‘Help! We Bought a Hotel’ followed the group’s efforts to fund the renovation of the east wing by renting completed rooms on the west wing.
Stables were also going to be converted into accommodation but as a listed building, the stables were subject to strict regulations and lengthy planning permission applications.
Running costs were immediately steep before renovation prices were factored in as the building’s insurance cost £20,000 per year.
During one episode on the show, Sutterby said: ‘These places don’t pop up very often because they’re either in families, owned by the National Trust or out of our league.’
Historian Jeremy Rye, who has links to the hall’s original custodians, praised the project.
He said: ‘I do admire them and it’s very obvious how genuinely enthusiastic they are – they love the place.
Building insurance for the 18th century hall cost £20,000 per year, which meant running costs were immediately steep
The series, ‘Help! We Bought a Hotel’ followed the groups efforts to fund the renovation of the east wing by renting completed rooms on the west wing
‘This is exactly what this house needs. It’s going to be shared with lots of people.’
Llanerchydol Hall was built in 1776 for wealthy tea trader David Pugh and remained in the family for 136 years.
As the estate shrank from 2,000 acres to maintain the mansion, the family decided to sell in 1912 to a wealthy cotton trader from Liverpool.
By the 1980s the building had fallen into serious disrepair and sat empty for more than a decade before the developers bought it.
