Newsflash re BDW v Ardmore

Further developments have arisen as a result of the progression of the case of BDW v Ardmore, which at the end of last year handed down the widely publicised judgment that disputes under the Defective Premises Act 1972 (“DPA”) may be the subject of arbitration. 

The most recent appeal, (BDW Trading Limited v Ardmore Construction Ltd & Others [2025] EWHC 434 (TCC)), relates to s.130 Building Liability Orders, a new remedy implemented as a result of the Building Safety Act 2022. Building Liability Orders are discussed alongside the other remedies introduced by the BSA in our previous article here, but, in brief, allow one party’s liability to indemnify for defects to pass to an  ‘associated’ company.
A potential precursor to obtaining a Building Liability Order is a s.132 Information Order, which allows a party to obtain details of ‘associated’ companies of the other party in order to substantiate a request for a Building Liability Order against such ‘associated’ companies. 
The judgment in the appeal provided the first guidance we have seen for such Information Orders, and ruled that in order to obtain an Information Order, relevant liability does not need to have already been established. However, it is for the court to determine if the ‘associated’ company is indeed liable for the building safety risk or DPA/s. 38 Building Act 1984 claim for the ‘specified building’ in question. The Information Order can only be sought against the original party and not the ‘associated’ company to which it is seeking to obtain a Building Liability Order, and the content of the information requested must only relate to (i) information which is relevant to the decision whether to apply for a Building Liability Order, and (ii) the ‘associated’ company itself. Financial or corporate information relating to the original party will not form the basis of these Information Orders.

In circumstances where information relating to ‘associated’ companies is not available to the original party, disclosure will not be required.