Specialists International
This Knowledge Check tests your understanding of the decision of the Technology and Construction Court in Crest Nicholson Regeneration Limited and others v Ardmore Construction Limited (in Administration) and others [2026] EWHC 1069 (TCC). This is the consequentials judgment following the grant of building liability orders under the Building Safety Act 2022. The court had to decide permission to appeal, an application to stay execution or extend time to pay, interest, and a costs deduction. The judgment matters to anyone pursuing or resisting building liability orders, because it applies the ordinary enforcement principles to a novel statutory order and to the enforcement of an adjudicator's decision against associated companies.
An earlier judgment of 1 April 2026, [2026] EWHC 789 (TCC), had made two building liability orders against the Fourth to Tenth Defendants, companies associated with Ardmore Construction Limited: an anticipatory order reaching any future liability of Ardmore Construction Limited to the Crest Nicholson claimants under the Defective Premises Act 1972 or for a building safety risk, and an order fixing the defendants with joint and several responsibility for roughly GBP 14.9 million owed under an adjudicator's decision dated 29 August 2025. At this consequentials hearing on 28 April 2026, Mr Justice Constable heard the defendants' applications and handed down judgment on 8 May 2026.
The court applied the appellate discretion principles in Azam v University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, the stay of execution framework in Wimbledon Construction Co 2000 Ltd v Vago and the inability to pay test drawn from Goldtrail Travel Ltd v Onur Air, and the time to pay principles in the judgments of Akenhead J. It refused permission to appeal on all five grounds, declined to certify a leapfrog appeal, refused a stay and any extension of time, awarded interest, and awarded Crest Nicholson the whole of its costs.
- The consequentials context and the two building liability orders already made
- The statutory basis in sections 130 and 131 of the Building Safety Act 2022
- The adjudicator's decision and the sum carried into the order
- The four matters in issue at the consequentials hearing
- The permission to appeal test and the five grounds advanced
- Appellate interference with a discretionary evaluation
- The stay of execution framework and the pay now argue later policy
- The burden of proving inability to pay, including funds from an owner
- Time to pay and why impending insolvency is no answer
- Interest and costs, and the overall disposal