Court considers contractual pricing arrangement and finds suspension was not repudiatory breach (Optimus Build v Southall)

Table of contents

• What are the practical implications of this case?
• What was the background?
• What did the court decide?
• Was the contract fixed price?
• Repudiatory breach
• Valuation of claim
• Case details

Article summary

Construction analysis: The Technology and Construction Court (TCC) held that the defendant homeowners were in repudiatory breach of contract, where they had wrongly concluded that the contractor’s suspension of works was itself repudiatory and made clear that the contractor should not return to site. The court was also required to consider whether the contract had been a cost plus or fixed price contract.