The judge said: “He seemed to me to be an old‑fashioned builder who found the defendant – as a professional, assertive woman – rather difficult to deal with when things were not going well and, as a consequence, tended to avoid doing so.” No, no, this is not a story about family law, husband and wife falling out. It’s an ordinary, everyday story about an £85,000 house extension, which I have seen repeated time and time again. The judge added: “I don’t think that the building company particularly covered itself with glory on this contract, but equally I do not accept that its performance was anything like as bad as the defendant contended.” The upshot is that the builder cleared off before completing the works and wanted his balance of account. It was, according to the judgment (Cartwright Pond Ltd vs Ms Louise Wild [11 June 2021] TCC), “a project that drifted for far longer than it ought to have done until it was brought to an acrimonious and unsatisfactory end”. Ordinary, ever so ordinary!

The builder’s account claimed for the works done, the umpteen variations, and compensation for being booted off site and loss of profit. His customer claimed for defects, for additional costs for completion by others, for late completion liquidated damages and for being obliged to live in a tent. She hinted at loss of earnings too.

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