High Court rules Building Liability Orders can be issued before liability is established, dealing a significant blow to Ardmore Group's challenge under the Building Safety Act
A High Court judge has ruled against Ardmore Group, the UK construction firm, in its challenge to the making of a Building Liability Order (BLO) — a remedy introduced by the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) — on the basis that the order was made before primary liability for building defects had been established against the target entity. The court held that BLOs can be issued pre-liability determination, confirming that the courts are willing to use the full remedial scope of the BSA to ensure liability for serious building defects falls where it properly belongs, including against associated companies in a corporate group structure. BLOs are a mechanism under the BSA that allows courts to pierce the corporate veil — that is, to hold a parent company or associated entity liable for building safety defects, even if the defective work was carried out by a subsidiary that may now be insolvent or wound down. The ruling was welcomed by claimant representatives as confirmation that defendants cannot use the timing of BLO applications as a procedural shield. Legal commentators cited in the judgment indicated they expect the frequency of BLO applications to accelerate significantly, as the jurisprudence becomes better established and the mechanism is tested in further cases. The decision is significant for the construction, real estate, and insurance sectors, where uncertainty about BLO scope has been a material concern since the BSA came into force.
Why this matters
This ruling materially expands the practical reach of BLOs under the Building Safety Act 2022, removing a procedural defence that construction companies had been relying on to delay or resist liability exposure. By confirming that a BLO can be made before primary liability is established, the court has effectively lowered the procedural bar for claimants — including leaseholders and local authorities — pursuing corporate groups for historical building defects. This is likely to trigger a wave of new BLO applications, particularly in the Grenfell legacy cladding and fire safety litigation context, where many original contracting entities have since been dissolved. It also has direct implications for D&O (directors and officers) and construction insurance policies, since the scope of insured liability is now broader than many underwriters may have priced for.
On the Ground
A trainee on a BLO dispute would prepare the chronology of the target company's corporate group structure, assist with disclosure review and categorisation of construction contracts and warranty chains, and research the statutory interpretation of 'associated' entities under the Building Safety Act 2022 for inclusion in skeleton argument research.
Interview prep
Soundbite
Pre-liability BLOs transform the Building Safety Act into a proactive corporate veil-piercing tool, not just a post-judgment remedy.
Question you might get
“What must a claimant demonstrate to obtain a Building Liability Order against a parent company, and why is this ruling significant for leaseholders pursuing remediation costs?”
Full answer
The High Court has ruled that Building Liability Orders under the Building Safety Act 2022 can be issued before liability against the primary defendant is established, rejecting Ardmore's procedural challenge. This matters because it confirms the BSA gives courts wide discretionary power to hold corporate group members responsible for building defects at any stage of proceedings, removing a key procedural defence the construction industry had been testing. The wider trend is courts actively extending the BSA's reach beyond what construction defendants expected, building on earlier decisions about the Act's retrospective effect. This ruling will drive a surge in BLO applications across the cladding and fire safety litigation landscape, sustaining high-volume contentious construction work at UK firms through the remainder of the decade.
Sources
My notes
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