Apex wins High Court victory in roof slate row

Apex Roofing Services LLP, a large roofing firm in the South East, has won a long-running legal battle with slate manufacturer Cembrit Blunn (Dansk Eternit) Ltd (now known as Cembrit), part of the Dansk Eternit Group.

Apex, based in Little Tey near Colchester in Essex, had claimed that a large number of Zeeland slates bought from Cembrit Blunn (now known as Cembrit) between 2000 and 2003 curled and lifted because there was inconsistent weatherproof coating on the back of the slates, resulting in a high absorption of moisture which was forcing the retaining rivets to straighten and come out.

After listening to evidence from a number of experts and viewing the results of laboratory tests, a High Court judge found that Cembrit Blunn (now known as Cembrit) was in breach of contract under the Sale of Goods Act 1979, concluding that the lifting and partially lifting fibre-cement slates were ‘not of satisfactory quality’. He found the evidence in support of thin and inconsistent back coating in the manufacturing process over a number of years to be ‘overwhelming’.

Apex Senior Partner Roy Leader said he felt vindicated after three years of legal wrangling over the quality of the slates, which had led to a significant financial loss for his business.

He said: “We proved in court that we were right all along, despite having little support from our own industry. Only the Confederation of Roofing Contractors announced our concerns to its members. The National Federation of Roofing Contractors chose not to warn their members about the product, while the British Board of Agrément’s attitude has been one of intransigence from the outset.

“It was only after considerable pressure from us that they admitted never having tested the ’Zeeland’ slates at all and their efforts to monitor the manufacturing process have been woefully inadequate despite several meetings with Cembrit Blunn (now known as Cembrit).

“As for Cembrit Blunn (now known as Cembrit), the way they have behaved towards us – considering we were their main UK customer and spent more than £2 million on these slates – has been unbelievable. All we ever wanted from them was recognition that they had a serious problem with their slates which required the issue of our customers’ roofs to be properly addressed.”

The fault first emerged in 2003 after some of the Zeeland slates fitted to properties on the Aberfeldy Estate in East London and Ingress Park at Greenhithe in Kent started to lift away from their rivets. As well as being unsightly, Apex was concerned that potentially this could be highly dangerous. Cembrit Blunn (now known as Cembrit) themselves acknowledged that the slates could break and fall under certain wind conditions.

Mr Leader explained: “The effect of the lifting is to put an abnormal strain on the disc rivet, which holds the tail of the slate. With the disc rivet gradually straightening over time, this leaves the slate more exposed to wind uplift. We were concerned this might result in the slates snapping in half during high winds and the lower half being blown from the roof.

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