Cases - Earls Terrace Properties Ltd v Waterloo Investments Ltd

Record details

Name

Earls Terrace Properties Ltd v Waterloo Investments Ltd

Date

(2002)

Citation

CILL 1889

Legislation

• Housing Grants, Construction Regeneration Act 1996
• Civil Procedure Rules 1998

Keywords

Construction contracts - adjudication - deed of variation - application of the Housing Grants, Construction Regeneration Act 1996- whether a construction contract concluded before the Housing Grants Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 came into force was subject to its provisions - whether deed of variation was a construction contract - whether variation of the contract in 1998 meant that the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 applied to the dispute - Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996, section 104

Summary

A contract was concluded between the parties in 1996 which it was accepted for the purposes of this case amounted to a construction contract; but, as the contract was made before the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 came into force, the Act was not applicable. However, in 1998, after the Act came into force, the parties entered into a deed varying the terms of the original contract. Disputes arose, which the defendant sought to refer to adjudication. This action was brought under Part 8 of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 (SI 1998/3132) to determine as a point of law whether or not the Act applied to the contract.

The court found that the deed by itself was not a construction contract, as the services that were to be provided were not altered by the deed. The variations that were made in the deed were simply to sums of money that were payable under the construction contract.