Cases - Blue Manchester Ltd v North West Ground Rents Ltd

Record details

Name

Blue Manchester Ltd v North West Ground Rents Ltd

Date

[2019]

Citation

EWHC 142 (TCC)

Keywords

Dilapidations

Summary

Manchester’s Beetham Tower is a £150m 47-storey glass building housing a hotel with flats above. Eight years after completion, the structural sealant used to attach the glass panels to the façade began to fail. The main contractor, Carillion Construction Limited, provided a temporary fix by installing stitch plates, before going into liquidation. 

The tenant of the hotel called on the freeholder to provide a permanent solution, citing concerns about the safety of the temporary fix, obstructions to access and overall appearance.

The freeholder argued that it had complied sufficiently with its repairing obligations by providing the temporary fix while it pursued claims against Carillion’s insurers and a subcontractor (which, it hoped, would enable it to fund a permanent solution).

At court the judge ruled that, as the stitch plates had been designed to last for no longer than 3years (and required regular, disruptive inspection), the façade was not in good or substantial repair. Furthermore, the judge accepted that aesthetic considerations can be relevant in some cases and considered that there would have to be some compelling reason for a tenant of a building of this nature to have to accept a time-limited repair such as this on a permanent basis.

So, the judge granted an order for specific performance requiring the freeholder to repair the building within an 18-month period so that it presented substantially the same external appearance as at the date of the lease. However, if it transpires that the costs are going to be disproportionate, the court has given the landlord permission to apply for approval to undertake a different remedial scheme.