Adjudication, residential occupation, pay less notices and liability for fees

In RBH Building Contractors Ltd v James [2025] EWHC 2005 (TCC); [2025] BLR 517 Mr Neil Moody KC, sitting as a Deputy Judge of the High Court, held that the defendants had a real prospect of establishing that the residential occupier exception in section 106 of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 had been engaged. He also held that the adjudicator had been wrong to conclude that the defendants had not issued a valid pay less notice. Finally, he held that he did not have jurisdiction to review the decision of the adjudicator in relation to the payment of his fees so that it was not open to the defendants to challenge the decision of the adjudicator that they must pay his fees even though they had successfully established in the proceedings before the Deputy Judge that the adjudicator had erred in the decision which he had reached.