Crest Nicholson Regeneration Limited & Ors v Ardmore Construction Limited (in Administration) & Ors [2026] EWHC 1069 (TCC)

In an earlier judgment the court had made building liability orders under sections 130 and 131 of the Building Safety Act 2022, attaching to associated companies the liability of an insolvent contractor arising from an adjudicator's decision. This judgment dealt with the consequential questions of stay of execution, time to pay, interest and costs.

The building liability order defendants proposed an unsecured monthly payment regime stretching into the future. The judge held there were no exceptional facts to justify a stay of execution or extended time to pay, and they must pay in accordance with the order within 14 days. Interest was allowed from the date of the adjudicator's decision, because its purpose is to compensate a party for being kept out of its money and the defendants could have paid at any time, and costs followed the event in Crest's favour.

The case shows how the building liability order under the Building Safety Act 2022 reaches the assets of associated companies where the primary contractor is insolvent, and that a debtor cannot avoid prompt payment of an adjudicated and order-secured liability by offering a drawn-out unsecured instalment plan.

Mr Justice Constable held at paragraph 43 that "there should be no stay of execution nor an extended time to pay".