Laing O’Rourke loses £35m luxury flats court case

Flat homeowners at One Hyde Park in Knightsbridge now face a ten-year refurbishment programme to repair leaking pipework within the constructing.

The luxurious scheme was accomplished in 2011 by Laing O’Rourke Building South.

The One Hyde Park (OHP) freeholders launched a authorized declare in opposition to the contractor in 2021 following years of unsuccessful talks over constructing defects which had been first found in 2014.

Laing O’Rourke Building South went into voluntary liquidation in February 2025 and the listening to and subsequent ruling was issued with out their defence.

Mrs Justice Jefford agreed with OHP barrister Andrew Rigney’s description that Laing O’Rourke’s choice to stroll away from the trial was “commercially amoral.”

The judgement added: “There was no proof earlier than the Court docket of any monetary issue of Laing O’Rourke plc or the group as an entire. Mr Rigney submitted that the one credible motive for the group withdrawing help from the defendant was that it had shaped the view that OHP was prone to succeed and acquire a considerable award of damages and that Laing O’Rourke plc, in my phrases not his, had determined to drag the plug on the defendant somewhat than honour its contractual obligations.”