Architect will seek to make billionaire businessman liable if his companies fail to pay 拢500,000

Architect Aukett Fitzroy Robinson will pursue property tycoon Simon Halabi personally if his companies fail to pay it 拢500,000 in legal costs.

Two Halabi companies, Good Start and Anglo Swiss Holdings, have until today to make an interim payment of 拢250,000, after losing a court battle with Aukett over three refurbishment jobs. If the cash fails to appear, the 拢15m-turnover architect has said it will go after Halabi himself.

Rupert Choat, a construction partner at law firm CMS Cameron McKenna, said individuals could be pursued in this way under exceptional circumstances. He said: 鈥淪omeone closely connected with a party ordered to pay costs, say a controlling director who ran the case for his own ends, may be ordered to pay those costs.鈥�

Aukett declined to comment this week on whether it thought Halabi would pay but one source close to the situation said: 鈥淭he company is assuming this may have to go all the way.鈥�

The dispute began last year when Aukett launched legal proceedings against Halabi鈥檚 firms, claiming 拢1.6m in unpaid fees for work on Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire and two properties in the West End.

A director who ran the case for his own ends may be ordered to pay the costs

Rupert Choat, lawyer

Halabi issued a counterclaim that Aukett had failed to inform him of the departure of Jeremy Blake, the project architect on the jobs, for eight months after he left.

As well as 拢500,000 in costs, the judge ruled Halabi should pay Aukett 拢871,900 in fees. If unpaid, the money will be recouped when the properties are sold. One of the West End properties, the former In & Out Club, is on the market with a reported price tag of 拢250m after Halabi鈥檚 plans for a super-rich club on the site were abandoned.

During the trial, Halabi, a Syrian-born billionaire, refused to settle the case for 拢700,000, despite advice from one of his own experts. The judge said such conduct 鈥渞ebounded to [Halabi鈥檚] detriment鈥�.

After Aukett鈥檚 full-year results last week, chief executive Nicholas Thompson described the case as 鈥渁 distraction鈥� and called it 鈥渁n unfortunate consequence of the decline in the property market鈥�.

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