10th January 2022
Under the Building Safety Bill as currently drafted, the limitation period is to be extended retrospectively to 15 years, see here.
Today Michael Gove MP has announced that the Bill will be amended to make that 30 years.
If enacted, that could open up a LOT of claims that were thought to be statute barred, though whether many potential defendants are still in business, and/or have insurance cover, no one knows.
Interestingly, opposition parties raised an amendment in the Commons Committee Stage to increase this extension to 30 years, but on 21 October 2021 (when Mr Gove was already secretary of state) the government rejected that as being too long. See here and here.
We are yet to see the proposed amendments to the Bill.
Author: James Leabeater QC
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