Pinned and needled

摘要

Judge thornton explained three useful points in the case of Westminster Building Company vs Andrew Beckingham. Before we go any further, hark the round of applause to the adjudicator Mr Bob Ames. You were spot on, my boy. None of the three points were easy. All of them were to do with the law and this RICS non-lawyer fellow goes top of the class. The story is about Mr Beckingham spending a quarter of a million pounds on refurbishing his mid-terrace town house. No mean sum. The contractual bumf proposed by Mr Beckingham's team included the JCT Intermediate Form. That's spot on as well. For one reason or another the contractual completion date ran away. So the parties signed up a capping agreement at about month eight. Then there was a row about what it meant. Westminster now said it was underpaid. So the adjudicator did his 28-day rain-dance and obliged Mr Beckingham to pay up. When Mr Beckingham stalled, Westminster sued.