Payment notice, pay less notice and stay of execution

In Laing O'Rourke Delivery Ltd v Shepperton Studios Ltd [2026] EWHC 612 (TCC) Mr Simon Lofthouse KC, sitting as a Deputy Judge of the High Court, held that the claimant was entitled to enforce the decision of an adjudicator, albeit at a lesser sum than that awarded by the adjudicator. While he found that the payment notice issued by the defendant was defective, the invalidity of the payment notice was held not to infect the pay less notice issued by the defendant. Although the latter had taken the wrong starting point for making the relevant calculations, that fact alone did not invalidate the notice given that the sums to be deducted had been sufficiently detailed. The effect was therefore to reduce, but not to eliminate, the liability of the defendant to make payment to the claimant. It was also held that the defendant was not entitled to a stay of execution. Although the claimant was said to be insolvent, the guarantee offered by the parent company of the claimant (but not the undertaking provided by the claimant or the evidence which it provided of a future pipeline of business) was held to displace the prima facie entitlement to a stay based on alleged insolvency.