Adjudication and the Defective Premises Act 1972
A recent case of BDW Trading Limited v Ardmore Construction Limited , enforced an adjudicator’s decision that Ardmore had deliberately concealed missing cavity barriers from BDW and others when it constructed a 280+ apartments at Crown Heights in Basingstoke between 2004 and 2006.
Ardmore argues the adjudicator had no jurisdiction to hear the claim, but the Judge disagreed.
This means that adjudication can be used to decide building safety claims which have threatened to clog up the Courts for the next 10 years.
Commentator’s state that this ruling means that a party to a construction contract can bring an adjudication at any time, may do so after the usual contract limitation periods have expired. However, presumably a party will still have a valid defence to the claim that the contract limitation period has expired.
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