Supreme Court success provides welcome relief for flat owners at New Lawrence House

30th June 2020

Landmark construction case in building warranty claims

Following on from the Court of Appeal’s (CofA) decision in December 2019, the Supreme Court has now refused East West’s appeal in relation to the Maximum Liability Cap (MLC) payable under the policy.

The landmark decision relates to the Zurich Standard 10 New Home building warranty and provides welcome relief for the owners of the flats at New Lawrence House.

The CofA’s decision that the MLC is to be set at £10.8m (which was the combined purchase price value of all of the flats in the development) as opposed to £3.6m (which included only a proportion of the flats) as contended by East West will now stand as good law and as a proper interpretation of the new home warranty issued by Zurich.

Martin Scott and Paul Hargreaves from Walker Morris and Jonathan Selby QC and Charlie Thompson from Keating Chambers represented the Claimants which comprised the freeholder, and the owners of 30 of the 104 flats. Paul Hargreaves who led the team, commented:

“This is extremely welcome news for our long suffering clients, who have had to endure significant financial hardship as a result of having to meet spiralling service charge costs, and mortgage payments in a building that has remained empty since 2017 due to significant fire safety defects that the insurers did not want to pay to rectify.

The decision will be of great interest to all involved in the new home warranty market, including insurers and policyholders alike.”

Please do not hesitate to contact the team at Walker Morris should you require assistance with any new home warranty related issue (please contact us at constructionclaims@walkermorris.co.uk or 0113 283 2500 and ask to speak to the Construction Team). To submit an enquiry relating to building warranty claims please click here.