Legal Claim Against Springs Roofing Settled Out of Court for £0.6m

THE BOARD of directors (the “Board”) is pleased to announce that a settlement of £0.6million has been agreed in respect of a legal claim against Springs Roofing Limited brought by Engie Regeneration (FHM) Limited.

The claim was first brought against Springs Roofing, a subsidiary of Northern Bear plc in December 2021. Springs received notice of formal court proceedings claiming the sum of £1.9 million plus costs for roofing work undertaken over a two-year period from April 2009 to March 2011 on 8 separate care home properties owned by Engie.

Engie had experienced performance issues with various aspects of the buildings, including their roof coverings, and subsequently employed Springs to re-roof all eight properties at normal commercial rates.

Claim Against Spring Roofing

Springs Roofing directors believed the performance issues were caused by problems with the design of the buildings, for which the roofing company had no responsibility. The re-roofing work was carried out to a different specification to the original contract with different materials being used.

Engie subsequently made a claim under its insurance policy to rectify the roofing work and, in conjunction with its insurers, made a claim against Springs to be pursued by the insurers. The Springs’ directors believe that the claim was without merit and this position was supported by comprehensive third party technical expert and legal advice.

However, in reaching the agreed settlement, the board of parent company Northern Bear plc and the Springs’ directors considered the management time likely to be involved, future legal costs of defending the claim and the commercial risk of litigation.

Springs and Northern Bear’s other subsidiaries say they retain excellent commercial relationships with Engie’s regional and national management team and that Engie continues to be an important and valued customer for the firms.

The settlement of £0.6m will come from Northern Bear’s existing resources and will be recorded as an exceptional item in the company’s annual results to 31 March 2022, which are expected to be released next week, commencing 18 July 2022.

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