BRITISH Embassy staff have been ordered to leave their new £13 million luxury apartments in Bangkok after the complex became contaminated by huge amounts of harmful mould.
The Foreign Office is set to sue those in charge of the building project to recoup an estimated £3 million repair bill, after 22 of the 35 flats were evacuated just three years after they opened.
An embassy source said: ‘This is a tale of total incompetence. Executives have forever been flying in from London business class to check the construction progress, but it’s clear it went out of control.’
Ordered to leave: British embassy staff have to been told to get out of their £13million luxury apartments in Bangkok because of harmful mold
Set in the £158 million British diplomatic compound, the flats were hailed as an architectural triumph when they were completed in 2009.
But mould was discovered just months later, triggering concerns it could cause respiratory infections and bronchitis.
The Foreign Office tried to play down the danger of the fungi, saying it came from ‘normal everyday spores contained in the natural environment in Bangkok’.
But it refused to reveal the exact type of mould and admitted that one staff member had caught an asthma-related illness.
Evacuated families have been put up in rented accommodation in the centre of Bangkok at a cost of almost £500,000.
An embassy worker said: ‘Secretly, staff are delighted. They do not want to live in the compound. It’s like living in the office. The mould was a godsend to some.’
A Foreign Office spokesman said they were ‘very disappointed’ with the situation, while MJP Architects, which designed the building, declined to comment
