Christian Hansen, associate in our Housing and Property Litigation team, has been quoted in Inside Housing, PBC Today, Housing Today and Local Government Lawyer after the resident victims of the Richmond House fire settled their High Court claim for damages.

Read our article on the judgment here.

Christian said:

Attempts to fix the broken system have not gone far enough. As well as missing protections for under 11m buildings, negligent and dishonest constructors of all sizes of buildings can still avoid responsibility. A damages claim could be made in this case because St James is still a going concern. Many defective and dangerous buildings have been built by short-lived companies which disappear afterwards, leaving profits to a parent company, and leaving residents with no one left to hold accountable.

The Building Safety Act 2022 recognises that problem but does not plug the gap. It allows only limited claims against associated companies leaving victims unable to claim for many losses. Victims cannot recover for many of their losses from such contractors if their building burns down – as happened to Richmond House. Among other things, claims against associated companies should be widened beyond the narrow confines in the Building Safety Act.