Commercial premises – disrepair – schedule of condition – diminution in value – damages

Dem-Master Demolition Ltd v Healthcare Environmental Services Ltd [2015] 
ScotCS CSOH 154 (Lord Doherty) (13 November 2015)

This Scottish decision concerned an industrial unit known as Centrelink 5, Calderhead Road, Shotts. Centrelink 5 was the smallest of five units created out of the former Cummins Engine Company factory which extends to about 540,000 sq ft. Originally, the development was a textile mill and Cummins occupied it from about 1956. Between 1975 and 1983 the factory was substantially rebuilt and extended for Cummins business of making diesel engines. Production ceased and the factory closed in 1996. Since then it has been substantially empty and has fallen into poor repair. In 2004 the factory was ‘A’ listed by Historic Scotland because it was considered to be one of the most significant large industrial buildings of the later 20th century in the UK, and a major work of the architects Ahrends Burton & Koralek.