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"This much-needed and excellent book fills a real gap in the residential construction field" - Her Honour Frances Kirkham CBE, Atkin Chambers This acclaimed book is the first of its kind to offer a systematic and analytical overview of the legal framework for residential construction.The updated edition addresses two fundamental questions: what assurances can the law give buyers (and later owners and occupiers, including renters) of homes that construction work - from building a complete home to adding an extension or replacing a shower unit - will comply with applicable standards of design, safety and build quality? And what forms of redress - from whom, and by what route - can residents expect, when, often long after completion of construction, they discover defects? The resulting problems pose big and difficult questions of principle and policy about standards, rights and remedies, which in turn concern justice more generally.The book addresses these central issues in a comparative context across the four nations of the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. The pioneering ideas advanced in the 1st edition are supplemented by key new topics, such as the Building Safety Act 2022, building control and long leasehold reforms (England & Wales); the Phase 2 report of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry; further housing quality changes in the UK via Consumer Codes and a new ombudsman; and significant reforms in Australia.This is an accessible and critical guide to the existing law for residents and construction professionals (and their legal advisers), with tables, figures and case studies, as well as a glossary. It also charts a course to further, meaningful reforms of the legal landscape for residential construction around the world.>
List of contents
1. Introduction
2. Residential Construction: Defects in Context
3. Regulation of Residential Construction
4. Contract Law in Residential Construction
5. Contract and Beyond: Other Rights of Action
6. Consumer Protection: Other Forms
7. Home Owners and Homebuyers: Insurance
8. Inspections in Residential Construction
9. Pathways to Redress
10. Time Limits for Redress
11. Multi-Unit Developments: Blocks of Flats
12. Conclusions
About the author
Philip Britton is former Visiting Professor and Director of the Centre of Construction Law, King's College London, UK.Matthew Bell is Associate Professor and Co-Director of Studies for Construction Law at Melbourne Law School, Australia. In 2021, he won first prize in the annual Hudson essay competition run by the Society of Construction Law (UK and Ireland) for his work Contract Damages for Defective Construction Work: An Unsolvable Puzzle?.Deirdre Ní Fhloinn is a barrister practising at the Bar of Ireland and a graduate of the Centre for Construction Law at King’s College London. She holds a PhD from Trinity College Dublin on the subject of liability for residential construction defects.Kim Vernau is Chair of Women’s Pioneer Housing and Non-Executive Director of the Housing Association Property Mutual. She is the former CEO of BLP Insurance, a provider of housing warranty insurance and commercial development latent defects insurance.
Summary
Explores the rapidly-changing future of residential construction law and presents a clear analysis of the legal framework, regulation, and case law.
