Westgreen Construction Limited v Irina Kiryukhina

Facts

The claimant contractor, Westgreen Construction Limited, was engaged by the defendant employer, Mrs Irina Kiryukhina, under a JCT Standard Building Contract without Quantities, 2016 edition, with bespoke amendments, executed on 24 June 2024, for construction and refurbishment works to a residential property in St John's Wood. The contract sum was £9,989,324.55. The Contract Particulars at clause 4.7 provided for two advance payments totalling £650,000, certified and paid, and set out the circumstances in which they were to be reimbursed to the employer. In May 2025 the Contract Administrator sought the claimant's agreement to amend clause 4.7 so that the advance payments could be clawed back before the final account; the claimant refused, saying the surety arrangements mattered to it. From interim certificate 23 the Contract Administrator ceased including the second advance payment in the gross valuation, and in Interim Certificate 25, dated 25 March 2026, omitted both. The claimant referred the omission to adjudication and Mr Donald Pugh decided on 7 May 2026 that £733,062.40 excluding VAT was due; the defendant, having paid only the £83,062.40 notified in her Pay Less Notice, did not pay the balance. The claimant issued enforcement proceedings on 20 May 2026 and applied for summary judgment, which the defendant resisted on jurisdiction and natural justice grounds and, alternatively, sought a stay of execution.