Ardmore firm was spending ‘huge sums’ dealing with remedial claims at time of its collapse, administrators say

Ardmore Construction Ltd (ACL) was spending “huge sums of money” on lawyers dealing with remedial claims, an administrators report into the collapsed firm has said, adding that it shelled out nearly £700,000 in February alone on legal bills.

Administrator Begbies Traynor’s report said in order to save costs and “with many court deadlines looming, [it] sought to deal with procedural documents in house”.

ACL went into administration at the end of August after more than 50 years in business with the firm later telling Building the extension of liability for building safety work to three decades made under the Building Safety Act led directly to its collapse.

ACL, which had a revenue of £313m in 2023, specialised in residential and commercial work across London and the South-east and had been targeting a turnover in excess of £500m at the time of its implosion.

But Begbies Traynor said the Building Safety Act (BSA22), which came into force in 2022, meant ACL was “faced with potential significant exposure due to the work it has undertaken”.

It added: “The company has been working towards mitigating the issues arising and has undertaken a significant amount of remedial work to date, spending in excess of £100m and had agreed with its principal insurers to pay £75m towards these costs. All of these funds have been expended on making good the defects.”

But it said a “landmark” judgment at the end of last year – which saw BDW Trading, Barratt Developments’ main trading arm, win a case against ACL upholding a favourable adjudication on alleged building safety defects on one scheme – meant the firm earlier this year “sought advice from solicitors and restructuring professionals. This resulted initially in advice that the company should consider a restructuring plan but with the process of administration in reserve.

“[It] also concluded that expending further sums on defence of claims under BSA22 in the first instance was no longer commercially viable and took steps to withdraw from further engagement. It continued to defend actions which were believed cost effective to do so to mitigate the potential creditor exposure and had also undertaken some work to pursue recovery claims and opportunities.”

>> See also: Could the shadow of Grenfell trigger more Ardmore-style collapses?

The report added: “Prior to this judgment, the company had received and sought to defend all incoming claims and spent huge sums of money on a variety of lawyers in furtherance of this purpose. In February 2025 alone, the company spent £687,440.”

The report said ACL “sought to maximise realisations in the interim and with significant projects reaching practical completion which would allow the release of bonds being completed and debtor and retention monies to be undisputed [while] other projects were novated to other companies within the group (in addition to the associated liabilities) and the company proceeded to wind down operations. A restructuring plan was considered but ultimately aborted.”

And it added: “The company continued trading for a short time but ultimately was running out of cash to discharge liabilities and with many court deadlines looming, sought to deal with procedural documents in house to save on costs or otherwise which it could no longer engage with. At the same time, the company was suffering cash depletion and consequently only business critical costs only were being met, with no short term funding or recovery imminent.”

It said that unsecured creditors are owed close to £30m with trade and expense creditors owed an estimated at £3,3m.

Intercompany firms are owed £10.1m with subcontractors owed a further £1.3m. Retention balances are estimated at £15m, the report added.

Parent company Ardmore Group Ltd is still trading. Last month, Martyn Horne, development director at the parent company Ardmore Group Ltd, told Building: Horne said: “For the avoidance of doubt, the remaining entities within the Ardmore Construction Group Limited are unaffected and are still trading as going concerns.”

Ardmore has been contacted for comment.