Building firm collapses after industrial disease legal claims

Harlow & Milner, which was based in Ossett, West Yorkshire, went into administration last month.

Yesterday, Peter Sargent, a partner at Begbies Traynor, who was appointed as a joint administrator, said the company had faced “unquantifiable” disease and injury claims related to conditions such as asbestosis.

Mr Sargent said Harlow & Milner had also suffered from a lack of profitable work and costly fixed overheads.

The company had been established for around 80 years, and had employed 70 staff as recently as late 2009. It employed 26 staff when it went into administration.

In September 2009, Harlow & Milner was one of 103 firms fined by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) for colluding with other companies to rig the tendering price when bidding for construction contracts.

The OFT said companies colluded with competitors on building contracts and this meant customers had been at risk of being overcharged.

Harlow & Milner was fined £23,000. At the time, the company said it was not aware that it had broken the rules and the fine had been “substantially” reduced because it had co-operated with the OFT.

The OFT investigation found that Harlow & Milner was not involved in more serious rigging of building tenders. In 2009, Harlow & Milner stressed that it invested in the community and had a robust compliance programme.

The company, which specialised in private and social housing, had seen its turnover dip below £10m, which affected its cash flow.

Mr Sargent and his colleague Julian Pitts were appointed as joint administrators on May 13.

An initial meeting of the company’s creditors will be held at the Cedar Court Hotel in Ainley Top, Huddersfield, on July 22 at 10.30am. The meeting will consider the joint administrators’ statement of proposals and a resolution specifying the terms on which the joint administrators are to be remunerated.