New London Meeting Facilities

8th May 2019

We are delighted to be able to announce the availability of our new Central London meeting facilities. The workspace is ideally located a short walking distance from Liverpool Street Station and very close to Farringdon station, which offers excellent connections for London Underground and mainline train services.

With many clients based throughout the UK and Europe and our ever increasing growth in specialist sectors, the availability of central London meeting facilities is a natural progression for the practice. In recent years, we have enjoyed considerable expansion in Construction and Building Developments (including Construction Disputes, Arbitration and Adjudication) and in our HMRC and Border Force Practice which deals with VAT and Tax issues, investigations, seizure and restoration of goods. We also find ourselves regularly representing clients in the London Courts, attending interviews with regulatory bodies and attending conferences with ours Clients and Counsel in London chambers. Therefore the ability to have an interview facility and a workspace in central London is an excellent addition to the company..

In addition to the expansion into London to meet clients’ needs, we are very excited at working with the business community at Cowcross and imparting and sharing our knowledge especially from the construction sector with likeminded businesses. We will hold regularly workshops and seminars addressing topical issues that the community face and we are very grateful to the owner, Alan Baxter for welcoming us to his business hub.

We believe the facilities will be a great addition to the quality of service that we can offer to both new and existing clients based in London, the UK and abroad.

Can you claim against Building Control?

Clients often make this enquiry when they are faced with the issue of defective building works on their home and for whatever reason they are not able to sue the builder or recover damages from them. 

There have been many examples of builders being sued for defective building works, but the claim cannot be enforced due to the building company’s financial position, or even worse insolvency. Historical cases illustrate that there are only extremely limited circumstances when it would be possible to bring a claim against a local authority, even when the building inspector has failed to spot defective construction works in carrying out its building control function under the Building Regulations.

As plans are submitted to the Council for Building Regulations approval and the building control officer inspects the works as they proceed, attempts have subsequently been made to claim that the Council was guilty of maladministration and had failed to discharge its statutory duties – which amounted to a breach of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, being the right to respect for private and family life.

This has always been denied by the Council leading to homeowners seeking permission to apply for a judicial review – which again has failed based on a number of facts;

• There was no remedy in contract or in negligence.
• There was no public law duty. The legislature had decided had made a decision that local authorities should not be obliged to repair privately owned homes.
• If living conditions were intolerable, the local authority would have an obligation to act under its homelessness legislation.
• The Council did not perform their duties over a prolonged period of time with full knowledge that the failure was having serious consequences for the claimants.
• Notwithstanding the difficulties, the family had lived in the home together as a family unit.
• The direct cause of the defects was the builder`s poor workmanship and his supervening inability or unwillingness to honour the Judgment.

The case highlights the need to ensure that when having building works carried out there is a contract in place with the builder which will protect you if faced with defective works.

It is also a reminder of the need to ensure that, so far as possible, the builder is financially stable so that if the works do not go according to plan they can afford to carry out any necessary remedial works, or, worst case scenario, can meet any Judgment which you may obtain against them.

If you need any help or guidance relating to any part of this article you can contact me at ph@rogers-norton.co.uk or on 01603675639.