Home Group taken to High Court by contractor over alleged £7.7m unpaid bill

Home Group has been taken to court by a contractor over a claimed £7.7m unpaid bill for a housing scheme completed in 2022.

ISG, which is currently in protracted talks over a sale to a South African businessman, filed documents at the High Court against Home Group in March this year.

ISG’s construction arm says that Home Group, which owns 55,000 homes across England and Scotland, owes it a total of £7.7m plus interest of 15.25% in payment for two residential blocks which it built on Watford High Street in Watford, Hertfordshire. Home Group disputes this and told Housing Today it has acted in accordance with the contract.

The pair signed the design and build contract for the 56-home mixed-use scheme in September 2014. Although it was due to complete in 2016, the scheme did not reach practical completion until February 2022.

On 21 February 2024, Home Group issued what it described as a “final payment notice” (FPN) to ISG stating that the sum owed for the works came to just under £718,000, less than 10% of what ISG claimed it was owed in its own final statement issued in early July.

The case is still live and is understood not to have been settled out of court, although proceedings have now been paused until 18 December because ISG failed to comply with pre-action protocol for engineering and construction disputes before issuing proceedings.

Pre-action protocol requires claimants to write to the defendant with clear details of the claim and why it is being made including a summary of the facts and how much money is being requested.

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In a court order issued at the Technology and Construction Court by Justice O’Farrell on 26 July, the two parties are said to have “disagreed” on whether ISG was correct in starting proceedings without complying to the protocol but agreed that the case should be paused.

If the case is not settled outside of court, Home Group is required to file its defence by 29 January 2025.

A Home Group spokesperson said: ”We have acted in good faith throughout this process and have paid a price that is correct and in accordance with the agreed contract terms.”

ISG has been contacted for comment.

The case is one of eight which troubled ISG has been involved in since the start of 2024. 

The firm’s fit-out business is also the defendant in a breach of contract claim with publishing firm Pearson PLC, while its retail arm is involved in a dispute with facades contractor FK Construction Ltd.

Last October, ISG Construction was also the subject of a winding up petition, a legal action used by a creditor against a company which owes it £750 or more. The status of ISG’s potential sale is currently unknown six weeks after the firm’s chairman Matt Roche said the deal would be announced “within days”.

It is understood the hold-up centres on red tape in the US, the base of ISG’s owner Cathexis, under the country’s so-called Know Your Client regulations.

The prospective new owners are udnerstood to have been meeting senior ISG staff to reassure them the impending sale is on track and to outline their plans for the business.