Contractor can pursue architect for £7.4 million over façade and fire defects in a 2009 London building

United Living, then called United House, was hired under a 2007 design-and-build contract to convert a site on Wharf Road into the nine-story Wenlock Building, completed in 2009. The fresh suit, filed in July 2024, asks for £3.142 million to replace the Velfac curtain wall system and £4.209 million to fix fire protection on the structural steel, Solicitors Journal reported. Dantaag and Dovista UK, the former Velfac, are also being sued. Hawkins Brown denies the allegations.

The case grew out of earlier litigation. After the Grenfell Tower fire, the building's tenant, Workspace, brought proceedings against United Living over combustible cladding and insulation, absent cavity barriers and poor fire stopping. The contractor agreed to carry out remedial works, then sued its project team. It left the curtain wall out of that claim because it blamed poor installation, a view Hawkins Brown's own lawyers had also put forward. The architect paid £1.575 million under a settlement in March 2023.

By January 2023, reports had convinced United Living that the curtain wall could not be repaired and had to be replaced, and its experts saw a possible case against Hawkins Brown. United Living did not mention it at the February 2023 mediation. Hawkins Brown called the new case an abuse of process. In a Nov. 3 ruling in the Technology and Construction Court, Mr. Justice Eyre disagreed. He held that the settlement released only the dispute it defined, noted that parties who mean to cover future claims normally spell that out, and found the curtain wall complaint still needed investigation when the deal was signed.

The ruling only lets the case go ahead. Whether Hawkins Brown is liable for the defects is still to be tried, Construction Enquirer noted. Remedial works at the building are nearly finished.