A tribunal ruling that ordered Stratford Village Development Partnership, the developer of London’s Olympic Village, E20, and its parent company Get Living, to pay £18m towards replacing dangerous cladding should serve as a warning to developers who might find themselves in a similar situation, according to legal experts.
The ruling was made by specialist property court the First-Tier Tribunal on 19 January.
The case was brought by affordable housing company Triathlon Homes under the Building Safety Act 2022, which was passed in the wake of the Grenfell fire. Triathlon manages properties across the East Village estate and owns some of the long leases.
Work is already under way to replace the cladding, funded by the government’s Building Safety Fund.
However, according to Tim Seal, head of construction at law firm Ridgemont, the money is intended to get repairs started and “there was always going to be a reckoning of the account”.
While it was likely that the developer would have to contribute to the costs of the work, he said, the question was “how much?”
“The key takeaway from this ruling is that if developers try to escape their responsibilities, they will be rowing against the tide,” he said.
He also noted that the ruling found both developer SVDP and its parent, Get Living, liable for the bill.
The judgment stated that the Building Safety Act permits contribution orders both from developers and those associated with developers.
“It seems to us that the situation of SVDP, with its relatively precarious financial position and its dependence for financial support upon Get Living, its wealthy parent, constitutes precisely the sort of circumstances at which these association provisions are targeted,” the judges found.
Even so, in an e-mailed statement, Get Living said the implications of the judgment were “profound.”
“We are, of course, disappointed that the tribunal has deemed it ‘just and equitable’ that we be held responsible for remediation costs, given that Get Living did not build the development and was not responsible for the retrofit of the athletes’ accommodation into homes after the 2012 Olympic Games. The judgement recognises this by acknowledging that Get Living was not involved in, or privy, to any decisions around the design or construction of the buildings,” the statement said.
The case also highlighted just how complicated these sorts of disputes can become, Seal said.
The parties now have a month to decide whether they plan to appeal the ruling on a point of law.
Get Living said it was “reviewing our next steps, while pursuing claims against the responsible contractors, and pushing ahead with our programme of remediation works in East Village”.
To send feedback, e-mail newsdesk@eg.co.uk or tweet @EGPropertyNews
