Having acted for employers on four projects in the past year where the main contractors have become insolvent, here are my 15 top actions for employers to consider when faced with main contractor insolvency.

Many things have changed during the Covid-19 lockdown. Additional time with family and time to catch up with things I wouldn’t otherwise have had time to do are two of the main benefits I have enjoyed. Being a rather boring lawyer, one guilty pleasure I have indulged in is watching transmissions of Supreme Court hearings.

It is perhaps an inevitable result of the current global pandemic that employers, main contractors and subcontractors alike will be dusting down the guarantees they have been given, or provided to others, in respect of their ongoing projects. For those who have been given them they need to establish what security those guarantees actually provide and, perhaps as importantly, how quickly they will pay out.

[2020] UKSC 25

In July 2020, when COVID-19 still seemed like a relatively new topic, I published an article that set out in detail the reforms brought in by the Government – partly to try to tackle the impact of COVID-19 – in the Corporate Insolvency and Governance 2020 (“CIGA”).

Retentions have been a common feature in the construction industry for over 100 years, yet over the past two years there has been a growing shift in the construction industry’s views on retentions and whether reform of retention as we know it is required. Adele Parsons discusses these recent developments further.

[2019] EWHC 2651 (TCC)

Before ICC Judge Barber In the Insolvency and Companies List

The facts

Kookmin Bank v Rainy Sky SA & Others

[2011] UKSC 50

We covered this case back in Issue 120. The case has now reached the Supreme Court where the decision of the Court of Appeal was overturned. In doing so, Lord Clarke adopted the interpretation of the bond which was most consistent with business common sense.

Company Voluntary Arrangements or CVA’s

Mead sought to enforce an adjudicator's decision of £332k. Dartmoor resisted on the basis that, as Mead was subject to a CVA, a stay should be granted on any judgment otherwise awarded to Mead. Mr Justice Coulson refused. There was no previous authority dealing with the point, but the Judge decided the following principles were relevant: