REUTERS | Eric Gaillard
May 20, 2022

How will construction products feature in future disputes about unsafe buildings?

REUTERS | Eric Gaillard
May 20, 2022

How will construction products feature in future disputes about unsafe buildings?

Commentators have begun assessing the impact of the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA 2022) – not least on this blog – and there is much more yet to be said. This post concentrates on construction products, in particular, new rights to pursue manufacturers and suppliers in civil actions.

Regulations controlling some construction products already exist, and a very helpful summary of these can be found here. BSA 2022 will usher in a new regime in which all construction products will be subject to at least some regulatory oversight. The proposed Construction Products Regulations 2022 are available in draft.

What are the new rights created by the BSA 2022? Continue reading →

REUTERS | Ilya Naymushin
May 18, 2022

Co-insurance and subrogation rights under the spotlight once more

The case of The Rugby Football Union v Clark Smith Partnership Ltd and FM Conway Ltd joins a growing and I believe important line of cases dealing with issues of co-insurance and subrogation. (For commentary on these cases from my colleagues, see Blog posts, Insurance and subrogation, Co-insurance and subrogation rights revisited (again!), Joint insurance and rights of subrogation revisited and A missed opportunity – Haberdashers and subrogation.) It is of particular relevance to us in the construction industry as it looks specifically at the allocation of risk between insurers and parties to an all-risk insurance policy on a construction project involving the JCT form of contract. Continue reading →

REUTERS | Christian Hartmann
May 11, 2022

EV charging infrastructure – construction, projects, planning and tax issues

In the third and final blog in our series looking at common queries on the roll out of EV infrastructure (see our previous blogs on progress and challenges and landlord and tenant issues) we focus on construction, planning and tax aspects. Continue reading →

REUTERS | Mohammad Ponir Hossain
May 10, 2022

What are the new rights of recourse under the Building Safety Act?

After many months of wrangling, both in the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the Building Safety Bill finally received Royal Assent at the end of last month. Now known as the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA 2022), the new building safety regime that is being introduced is going to have a significant impact on many of us.

Given the breadth of change on the horizon, I’m going to focus on just a few bits of the BSA 2022 – the enhanced rights of recourse available to those affected by building safety defects – but what do I mean by this? Continue reading →

REUTERS |
May 10, 2022

Latest episode of The Construction Briefing now available

The Construction Briefing is an alternative way of learning about key developments in construction law, with the Practical Law Construction editorial team discussing some of the wider issues those developments raise. Episode 10 is now available and in it, Michelle and Yassir:

  • Highlight that the Building Safety Bill received Royal Assent and is now known as the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA 2022). We discuss when we expect its provisions to come into force (starts at 1:12).
  • Consider O’Farrell J’s judgment in Bexheat Ltd v Essex Services Group Ltd [2022] EWHC 936 (TCC), where she reminded us that section 111 of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 (Construction Act 1996) creates an immediate obligation to pay the notified sum, and the right to adjudicate (under section 108) to obtain a true valuation is subjugated to that payment right (starts at 24.40).
  • Discuss Lord Braid’s judgment in Van Oord UK Ltd v Dragados UK Ltd [2022] CSOH 30, where the court held the adjudicator materially breached the rules of natural justice and so declined to enforce the adjudicator’s decision (starts at 37.25).

Did you know that you can subscribe to our podcasts from other places (like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify), enabling you to download and listen to all episodes on the go on your phone.

REUTERS | Henry Nicholls
May 4, 2022

Does the platinum jubilee bank holiday entitle a contractor to an extension of time?

An additional bank holiday has been created in the UK this year to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. Does this entitle a contractor to claim an extension of time? A client recently asked this question in the context of a project using the JCT Design and Build Contract 2016. It certainly throws up a number of issues. Continue reading →

REUTERS | Dinuka Liyanawatte
April 26, 2022

EV charging infrastructure – landlord and tenant issues

In the second blog in our series looking at common questions we receive on the roll out of EV infrastructure, we focus on two queries we regularly see in the context of landlord and tenant relations. Continue reading →

REUTERS | Arnd Wiegmann
April 26, 2022

Does a true value adjudication bind a subsequent smash and grab adjudicator?

In my view, this is an interesting question and, until earlier this month, not one we’d seen addressed in the law reports before (at least, not as far as I recall). Without cheating and looking at the judgment in Bexheat Ltd v Essex Services Group Ltd, I wonder how many of you would answer the question yes and how many would answer no. Answers on a postcard please! Continue reading →

REUTERS | Ralph Orlowski
April 20, 2022

EV charging infrastructure – progress and challenges

The EV infrastructure roll out to meet the government’s 2030 target of ending sales of all new petrol and diesel cars is well underway with the private sector rolling out digital charging “at pace”.

At the end of March, the government published plans to supercharge progress (more on this below) with promises to do more to encourage private investment so activity in what is already a thriving sector looks likely to intensify.

With this is mind, we thought it would be interesting to look at some common queries we receive from clients already active in this sector.

The questions span a range of legal disciplines and so this week, in the first of our blogs on this topic, we’ll start by focusing on some of the general questions we are asked.

In the next blogs in the series, we will look at questions that regularly come up in the context of landlord and tenant relations, construction, projects and planning. Continue reading →

REUTERS | Mike Blake
April 12, 2022

Court refuses to enforce adjudicator’s decision due to a breach of natural justice

The keen-eyed among you will note that this is the third post in a row where I have talked about adjudication enforcement cases in which natural justice issues have arisen either directly or indirectly.

I promise that I haven’t got some strange fetish for such matters. Nor do I think that such challenges are necessarily de rigueur amongst aggrieved parties. Rather, I think it’s just that, like buses, we don’t get any cases for a while that deal with a point (here that is natural justice), and then three come along at once.

In the finale to this trilogy of posts, I want to discuss the very interesting Scottish case of Van Oord UK Ltd v Dragados UK Ltd. Lord Braid’s judgment makes for a jolly good read because, not only is it very well written and refreshingly brief, but it also concerns one of the cornerstones of the natural justice challenge war chest, namely what happens when the adjudicator reaches their decision on a basis not canvassed with the parties. The origins of such challenges can be traced back 20 years (which is positively ancient when it comes to adjudication jurisprudence) to cases such as Balfour Beatty Construction Ltd v Lambeth LBC. Continue reading →