It has got to be one of the most dramatic property transformations that the Isle of Man has seen.

Dubbed Bleak House, it was once the island’s most infamous derelict building.

It had been an eyesore on Ramsey’s Mooragh Promenade, and a thorn in the side of neighbours and the local authority, for many years.

But now, under new ownership and back under its old name, Peveril Court is being restored to its former glory.

It is being refurbished as flats and boasts a smart blue and buttercream colour scheme that shows off its fine architectural detailing.

The saga over Bleak House goes back decades.

Amid deadlock between freeholder and leaseholders, it had been given that name in reference to the Charles Dickens novel which similarly involves an irreconcilable dispute between two parties.

At one point a widow was living alone there without mains power or electricity.

Jane Morris was a shareholder with her late husband Michael of the company that then owned the building.

She blamed his death from a heart attack on the stress he was under in his long-running battle to save – as he saw it – the property from demolition.

By that stage, Ramsey Town Commissioners had already been forced to intervene as the seafront building became increasingly derelict. The local authority served an improvement notice on the then owners and ultimately carried out works to replace the roof and stop the property from deteriorating further.

But the breakthrough came when the leaseholds for the flats within the building were brought under the single ownership of a new owner.

That new owner has a good track record in developing property, having been responsible for the equally impressive refurbishment of neighbouring Belvedere Court.

The freehold of Bleak House had been under Coroner’s arrest in relation to the money owed to the Commissioners for the work to the roof.

But then the new owner took over the freehold too, in a deal which saw the Commissioners recoup £20,000 of the £50,000 it had paid for the roof repairs.

Town clerk Tim Cowin said: ‘Ramsey Town Commissioners could not be more pleased - it looks fantastic.

‘The new owner has done a fantastic job, painting the frontage and making it look like the building it should always have been.

‘It will bring up the whole area which is absolutely fantastic. We look forward to people moving into Peveril Court in the not too distant future.’

Plans submitted by William Armstrong Ltd to convert the former public bar in the ground and basement floors into three flats (22/01071/B) was turned by the planning committee last year because of the unacceptable risk of on-site flooding from a one in 100-year flooding event.

The applicant has appealed.