Laing O’Rourke is being sued by a client over allegations that defects in its work left a high-rise residential development “not fit for human habitation”.
Six companies owned by build-to-rent developer Get Living are taking the action against the contractor over a string of allegations related to the Elephant Central scheme, the final section of which was completed in 2018.
The development, in South London’s Elephant and Castle area, contains three residential towers, which are 15, 18 and 23 storeys, on top of a podium that includes commercial space and flats.
The claim has been brought against Laing O’Rourke Delivery Limited, which designed and constructed the development, and its ultimate parent, Laing O’Rourke plc.
The claimants are seeking a building liability order (BLO) and/or damages against the parent company.
BLOs were introduced under the Building Safety Act 2022 and allow courts to extend certain building-safety liabilities to an associated company where it is considered just and equitable to do so.
The Get Living companies’ claim alleges the design and installation of external wall systems incorporated combustible insulation – including Kingspan’s K15 – which would not adequately resist the spread of fire.
Papers lodged with the Technology and Construction Court add that the external wall systems are also “ineffectively compartmentalised” and are lacking or contain inadequate cavity barriers.
They state that the construction also had ineffective fire protection arrangements, defective fire stopping and materials that risked compromising sprinkler pipework, as well as inadequate sprinkler installations.
The claim also says that, as far as the Get Living companies are aware, Laing O’Rourke did not procure a full-scale test of the external wall systems or establish compliance through an adequate fire-engineering solution or valid desktop assessment.
A fire strategy for the building was also incomplete and contained conflicting and potentially misleading information regarding fire detection and fire alarms, the Get Living firms state.
According to the claim, investigations carried out by AESG and other specialists uncovered the alleged defects..
“As a result of such findings, interim measures were required to protect the life safety of the occupants, initially in the form of a 24/7 waking watch to manage the immediate evacuation of the building in the event of a fire, replacing the ‘stay put’ policy in the South and West Towers,” the claim says.
“No waking watch was required at the North Tower, as this already had, and has, a managed simultaneous evacuation policy. The waking watch was replaced by the end of 2023 with a temporary fire alarm system.
“Such interim measures have enabled Elephant Central to be occupied safely pending completion of permanent remedial works, but as completed, Elephant Central was not fit for human habitation.”
The particulars of claim do not state any specific financial figure being sought by the Get Living companies but said the claimants expect to incur “very substantial sums” on permanent remedial work
It says that a lack of information provided by the contractor has “significantly impeded” its ability to investigate some matters that are the subject of the claim.
According to the claim, the electronic document platform provided by Laing O’Rourke at practical completion was “poorly structured and badly referenced” and could not properly be accessed or navigated.
It also accuses the company of failing to comply with the pre-action protocol for construction and engineering disputes by not responding to an initial letter of claim dated 29 October 2024 until 31 October 2025 – a full year later.
When it did finally respond, the letter did not include any new information or documents, the Get Living companies state.
Laing O’Rourke has not yet filed a defence to the claim.
A Laing O’Rourke spokesperson said they were unable to comment “as legal proceedings have been commenced”.