Court of Appeal Judgment in two Building Safety Act appeals
The Court of Appeal handed down judgments in the much anticipated BSA appeals in Triathlon Homes LLP v SVDP & Ors [2025] EWCA Civ 846 and Adriatic v Long Leaseholders of Hippersley Point [2025] EWCA Civ 856. Michael Walsh KC acted for the Secretary of State in both cases.
In Triathalon (Michael led Camilla Chorfi and Richard Miller of Falcon Chambers), the Court of Appeal agreed with the Secretary of State's submissions and decided that section 124 of the Building Safety Act 2022 is retrospective and therefore applies to permit recovery of costs incurred prior to the commencement of the Act. The Court also gave detailed analysis to the meaning of the "just and equitable" test and found that it was just and equitable to make an RCO on the facts of the case.
In Adriatic, the Court agreed with the Secretary of State (by a majority, Newey LJ dissenting) that Sch 8 was retrospective in that the leaseholder protections applied to prevent landlords from recovering service charges incurred but not paid before 28 June 2022. This retrospective interpretation was held not to breach A1P1 of the ECHR.
These appeals were heard over 5 days in March, with the Court of Appeal handing down the judgments yesterday (8 July).
A combined copy of both judgments has been included with this article. However, the judgments can also be read individually through the links listed below:
