Project Overview:

This project involved a range of defects across 18 luxury apartments in Chester. Historically, the defects and the majority of the issues related to the Developer’s Guarantee Period however due to several years of the Developer unsuccessfully attempting to rectify the problems on a case-by-case basis, relations with the homeowners had broken down to the extent that legal proceedings were being taken forward with regular communications made from the residents to Zurich’s Chief Executive.

As a high profile project within Zurich, GHPC was appointed firstly to survey the properties and comment on the range of defects and the possible cause of the defects including; persistently leaking single-ply roofs (roofs across two apartment blocks had been laid without falls and were in poor condition), defective underfloor heating system (complicated system which had few system experts in the UK), repeated water ingress and rotting materials due to balcony design & installation problems, damp ingress problems at basement level and around structural openings of windows, drainage problems across the site and lack of fire protection / compliance with Building Regulations.

It was generally noted that the majority of the defects on this project were caused in part by a basic design and specification (set by the Developer) but largely due to poor workmanship and detailing across the site - it was also apparent (and historical records backed this up) that there was a distinct lack of supervision during the works.

GHPC designed and specified the remedial solutions for the buildings, tendered and procured the contract, managed the contract, project managed the remedial works on-site, acted as CDM Co-ordinator, liaised with Building Control & Planning Authority to waive application requirements, negotiated with residents to waive Party Wall requirements and provided ongoing design advice and technical support to the contractor throughout the works - which, due to the nature of the works and the exposed location of the site, had to be fully scaffolded with a major bespoke scaffolding design, to ease disruption to the residents, who remained in-situ throughout the works - no de-canting of residents was carried out.

The works were carried out over a period of 11 months, let to the successful tendering Principal Contractor under a JCT Contract.

Following the works, Zurich instructed a recovery process against the Developer, with GHPC engaged as expert witness.