黑洞社区

Greenwich-based O鈥橩eefe claims it has not been paid in full for its work on the 11-storey building on the site of the former Marconi House in Aldwych, London. A High Court writ says Cantillon, the main contractor for Spanish company Urvasco鈥檚 new flagship Silken hotel, designed by Foster + Partners, has paid O鈥橩eefe more than 拢4m to date, but about 拢1.4m remains outstanding.

Patrick O鈥橩eefe, managing director of O鈥橩eefe, was approached by Michael Cantillon, Cantillon鈥檚 managing director, in March 2005 to provide a preliminary budget price for groundworks, and O鈥橩eefe produced some 鈥渧ery ball park鈥� comments on cost and programme, the writ says.

Cantillon asked O鈥橩eefe to go 鈥渂ack to back鈥� with Cantillon's main contract, a practice which involves the subcontractor working on the same terms as the main contract, but O鈥橩eefe declined, saying he could not sign up to a main contract which he had not reviewed or seen in its final form, the writ says.

O鈥橩eefe started foundation work on the site in July 2005 without a subcontract agreement, it is alleged. Despite discussions, the two sides did not manage to reach agreement on the scope of the work to be done or its price, and O鈥橩eefe brought foundation work to an end in December 2006.