Disputes Mini Series: You won the Adjudication. Enforcement Gets You Paid

Episode 153 of The Subcontractors Blueprint tackles the gap between winning an adjudication and actually being paid. Jacob Austin walks through construction adjudication enforcement- how a decision becomes a summary judgment in the Technology and Construction Court, why temporary finality means the money moves first and the arguments come later, and how narrow the grounds to resist really are. He covers the recovery toolkit that follows a judgment: High Court enforcement officers, charging orders, third party debt orders and winding up petitions. The message is blunt: a decision is only worth what you can collect, so move the moment the deadline passes.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Why a winning decision sitting in a drawer is worth exactly nothing.

The two- and only two- arguments that can stop enforcement in the TCC.

How a jurisdiction point they failed to reserve weeks earlier hands you a walkover.

Why "the adjudicator got it wrong" is not a defence, and the judge has heard it a thousand times.

The one thing to check at Companies House before you spend a penny chasing.

When your own shaky finances can be used against you at enforcement.

BEST BITS

"The win isn't the decision. The win is when the cash lands in your bank account."

"The list of things they're actually allowed to argue is tiny."

"Wrong is enforceable."