A TENANT trying to claim ownership of a £1m North Oxford house has been charging housemates rent while not paying any himself, a judge heard yesterday.

Philip Brown is one of two residents of the property in Warnborough Road facing eviction proceedings at Oxford County Court. Yet they claim they should be given the six-bedroom house for free because there is no legal owner.

Yesterday he was accused of lying over the rent taken at the property and fabricating the scheme to legally be able to claim ownership.

Abbey Folami, who is seeking the eviction order, says he is the rightful owner, having bought it for £108,000 and land in west Africa from a relative of the original owner, dead Nigerian chief Obasola Atobatele.

Mr Brown, who moved into the property in 1987, says he should be classed as the owner on the grounds of ‘adverse possession’, where someone in possession of a property for 12 years can, subject to conditions, claim ownership.

Mr Brown said he stopped paying rent in 1996 after receiving a letter from someone acting for the dead chief’s daughter stating there appeared to be no authority to pay rent to anyone. Two years later he began collecting £50 a month from all the people living in the house to cover bills after receiving legal advice, he said.

He said he did not call himself the new landlord or owner to avoid conflict within the house but was taking charge of matters. Mr Brown said the initial monthly payments of £50 rose to £60 and then £100 as bills escalated.

He added: “In 2005 a resident moved out. At that point in time we have an empty room, so we started to rent out that room, (to the) first person to pay a proper rent of £320 (a month).”

As bills mounted all tenants began to pay rent. Mr Brown said he did not pay rent himself but took on multiple jobs, loans and credit cards to keep the house afloat.

Mr Folami’s barrister Richard Devereux-Cooke said paperwork submitted to the court by Mr Brown showed one resident had a tenancy agreement dated June 1, 2007, for £340 a month. But, the barrister argued, evidence submitted to his own solicitors by Mr Brown six weeks later put the figure at £200 a month.

Mr Devereux-Cooke said: “What you did in providing the information is to deliberately downgrade the rents that were being received.

“Your intention was to try to show to Mr Folami that the rental income was less than it already was.”

Mr Brown apologised for the apparent error and said he was collecting money on “an ad-hoc basis to keep the house afloat and make sure income exceeded expenditure”.

Mr Devereux-Cooke questioned the scheme to claim adverse possession.

He said to be successful, tenants had to prove they intended to claim adverse possession for the 12 years it takes before they can take ownership. The case continues.