What’s to be done when the dispute goes to adjudication and the opponent says there is no jurisdiction and loses, then loses in the actual adjudication but won’t pay up, then loses in the High Court enforcement and still won’t pay up, then faces a drastic action enforcing the enforcement and still won’t pay up – but instead throws the kitchen sink at the winner in a counterclaim for a £2m that puts the original adjudication award of £200,000 in the shade?

Hong Kong businessman Mr Robbie Brothers bought the lease on an extraordinary building in Richmond. It is The King’s Observatory in the Old Deer Park, Twickenham, built in 1769 by King George III, who wanted a new house with a telescope in a rotating roof dome to observe Venus inching across the sun. Some 250 years later, Mr Brothers engaged architect Donald Insall Associates Ltd (DIA) to refurbish the house. It looks superb now. The only snag is that the architect is miffed because his fee of around £200,000 has not been paid.

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