The Technology and Construction Court (TCC) has made the first Building Liability Order (BLO) pursuant to section 130 of the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA).
The BLO was made in an ex tempore judgment in late December 2024, following a consequential hearing in the case of 381 Southwark Park Road RTM Company Ltd & Ors v Click St Andrews Ltd & Anor [2024] (a transcript of the ex tempore judgment is not yet available but is expected to be published shortly). In the main judgment handed down on 11 December 2024, Mrs Justice Jefford DBE had found that there were fire safety breaches which "give rise to a relevant liability for the purposes of section 130(3)(b)" of the BSA. This is a relevant liability "as a result of a building safety risk".
Further detail on the background to the case and the court's findings can be found in our previous insight.
It is understood that in the subsequent ex tempore judgment, Mrs Justice Jefford DBE:
- Made a BLO in favour of the claimants, confirming that the "relevant liability" of the first defendant (the freeholder of the building) was also the liability of the second defendant (its associated company);
- Permitted the claimants to apply for a BLO against another entity, which had not been a party to the main proceedings but was a related group company of the defendants; and
- Made an information order under section 132 of the BSA, which will enable the claimants to obtain a detailed financial picture of the related group company's assets.
The making of the first BLO is of historic significance and marks the first confirmation by the Courts that BLOs may be sought against associated companies which are not party to ongoing proceedings. As described in our previous insight, this reinforces the wide scope of BLOs and the power they confer on the High Court to 'pierce' the corporate veil and hold developers and associated companies to account for building safety defects, where the party that originally developed, designed or constructed a building (often a special purpose vehicle (SPV) has been wound up or is insolvent.
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