Apex wins High Court victory in roof slate row

Apex Roofing Services LLP, a large roofing firm in the South East, has won a long-running legal battle with slate manufacturer Cembrit Blunn Ltd, part of the Dansk Eternit Group.

Apex, based in Little Tey near Colchester in Essex, had claimed that a large number of Zeeland slates bought from Cembrit Blunn between 2000 and 2003 curled and lifted because there was inconsistent weatherproof coating on the back of the slates, resulting in a high absorption of moisture which was forcing the retaining rivets to straighten and come out.

After listening to evidence from a number of experts and viewing the results of laboratory tests, a High Court judge found that Cembrit Blunn was in breach of contract under the Sale of Goods Act 1979, concluding that the lifting and partially lifting  fibre-cement slates were ‘not of satisfactory quality’. He found the evidence in support of thin and inconsistent back coating in the manufacturing process over a number of years to be ‘overwhelming’.

Apex Senior Partner Roy Leader said he felt vindicated after three years of legal wrangling over the quality of the slates, which had led to a significant financial loss for his business.

He said: “We proved in court that we were right all along, despite having little support from our own industry. Only the Confederation of Roofing Contractors announced our concerns to its members. The National Federation of Roofing Contractors chose not to warn their members about the product, while the British Board of Agrément’s attitude has been one of intransigence from the outset.

“It was only after considerable pressure from us that they admitted never having tested the ’Zeeland’ slates at all and their efforts to monitor the manufacturing process have been woefully inadequate despite several meetings with Cembrit Blunn.

“As for Cembrit Blunn, the way they have behaved towards us – considering we were their main UK customer and spent more than £2 million on these slates – has been unbelievable. All we ever wanted from them was recognition that they had a serious problem with their slates which required the issue of our customers’ roofs to be properly addressed.”

The fault first emerged in 2003 after some of the Zeeland slates fitted to properties on the Aberfeldy Estate in East London and Ingress Park at Greenhithe in Kent started to lift away from their rivets. As well as being unsightly, Apex was concerned that potentially this could be highly dangerous. Cembrit Blunn themselves acknowledged that the slates could break and fall under certain wind conditions.

Mr Leader explained: “The effect of the lifting is to put an abnormal strain on the disc rivet, which holds the tail of the slate. With the disc rivet gradually straightening over time, this leaves the slate more exposed to wind uplift. We were concerned this might result in the slates snapping in half during high winds and the lower half being blown from the roof.

Although Cembrit Blunn conceded in correspondence with Apex that some of the slates had an inconsistent coating on the underside, they refused to replace all the affected roof slopes, offering only to carry out piecemeal remedial works using new rivets – which both Apex, the housing developers and the NFRC said was unacceptable and would cause more problems in the long run.

Despite many meetings and intense negotiations, the stalemate was only broken when Cembrit Blunn started legal proceedings against Apex, with a claim for breach of confidence and infringement of copyright over one of their own internal letters that Apex showed to the housing developers as evidence of their knowledge of the problem. Apex responded with a counter claim for breach of contract and damages.

The Judge, Mr Justice Kitchin, heard both claims together, finding both cases proved. However, the issue over the faulty slates dominated the hearing, with compensation to Apex and costs due to be assessed at a later hearing. Apex has already replaced the roofs on 59 properties with Marley Eternit Garsdale slates and is asking the Court to order Cembrit to reimburse them for the full cost of this. 

After 30 years in business, Apex now anticipates Cembrit (who guarantee their slates for 30 years) will resolve any remaining roofing problems on other developments direct with the affected house owners. 

Apex prides itself on the quality of its workmanship, which was reinforced by the Judge, who dismissed the attempts of Mr Chris Thomas, Cembrit Blunn’s slating expert, to discredit Apex’s workmanship in the course of the proceedings. Apex has around 50 staff and subcontractors many of whom have worked for the company since its early days.

Mr Leader added: “The slaters who gave evidence to the Judge have all worked for Apex for between 15 and 20 years and are highly experienced. Their work had been inspected by numerous people every step of the way. In the end, we knew that justice would prevail but it has been a difficult and expensive time for us; we now just want to put all this behind us and look to the future.”

Apex's case was handled by Lincoln’s Inn Barrister Jonathan D C Turner, and Solicitor Christopher Yemm from Fisher Jones Greenwood LLP in Colchester. Cembrit Blunn have indicated that they do not intend to appeal against the judgment.

 

For more information about Apex Roofing Services please see www.apexroofingservices.co.uk.