Together with my Anthony Gold housing team colleague Jenny Evans, I did a webinar today (Wednesday) on build defects, issues and remedies for leaseholders. The video of the webinar is free to view here if anyone is interested or might find it of use.
I would have pre-announced the webinar on the blog, but I put out a tweet and the 500 available sign up places were gone by the end of the day, slightly terrifyingly. Nonetheless, it was good to see quite a few frequent opponents on the attendee list.
The webinar covers:
- why build defects are a particular issue for leaseholders
- the difference between build defects and repairs
- the range of build defects and the overlap with the widespread cladding scandal and the EWS1 farce
- the range and limits of remedies for leaseholders
- why negligence is of limited use
- claims in contract
- claims under section 1 Defective Premises Act 1972
- limitation periods and why these are a problem
- warranty claims
- more limitation, and question time
The eagle eyed and eared of you will notice two things:
Firstly that with my near-legendary ability to add a typo absolutely anywhere, the powerpoint is dated 3 December rather than 2 Dec.
Secondly, that I don’t mention section 4 Defective Premises Act. There is honestly a good reason for that. Section 4 DPA doesn’t really add anything to a claim in negligence, as it only covers injury to person or property, not economic loss. So it is really a double pleading to negligence, or just an add on to a section 1 DPA claim against a freeholder where there has been injury to person or property. It is not a remedy for build defects per se.
And I have to say it is downright weird doing a webinar to roughly 300 invisible and inaudible people – a complete absence of the usual feedback cues as to how things are going is challenging and jokes are… difficult. You can’t even keep an eye on chat, because too many people. I’ve done a few similar scale things now and still find it odd, but Jenny took to it like a duck to water.