CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTS

Construction Contracts



Construction Contracts

1-The effect of the above amendment included in the Bill of Quantities.

Referring to the shortcomings being faced by Strummer construction Ltd on a contractual position the English Standard forms of Building and Engineering Contracts make complex provisions for dealing with delay and the management of its financial consequences Analyses of these indicate that by approaching their application from the common law rules concerning damages for breach of contract provide a clearer rationale for explaining what these clauses set out to do. This enables users in countries outside the common law jurisdictions to gain a clearer means of adapting or using them.

The Contractor shall submit at such times and in such detail as the Architect/Contract Administrator may reasonably require for full consideration to be given and if necessary for revised proposals to be considered such information pertaining for the methods of construction (including temporary works and the use of contractor's equipment) which the Contractor proposes to adopt or use and, if requested by the Architect/Contract Administrator, such calculations of stresses, strains and deflections that will arise in the Works and any parts thereof during construction from the use of such methods as are sufficient to demonstrate to the Architect/Contract Administrator that, if these methods are adhered to, the Works can be executed in accordance with this Contract “Disputes as to the terms, express and implied, of oral construction agreements are surprisingly common and are not readily susceptible of resolution by a summary procedure such as adjudication. Newer forms contain different wording but their aims are the same; to allocate the risk arising in these contracts in a clear and efficient manner. Contractors can as a result, price their tenders clearly knowing what their risks are. As a consequence price comparisons between tenders can be managed in a straight-forward manner.

These principles were emphasised by the Privy Council in Phillips HK Ltd v AG of HK that'parties should be able to know with a reasonable degree of certainty the extent of their liability and the risks which they run as a result of entering into contracts. This was 'particularly true in the case of building contracts and engineering contracts'. Quantifying delay in completion and its consequences is particularly important in situations where it is difficult for the employer to prove its actual losses. It then makes commercial sense for parties to agree the actual losses recoverable beforehand so as to reduce this uncertainty. From a bill of quantities aspect the words direct loss and/or expense were considered in Wraight Ltd v PH &T (Holdings) Ltd It was held to mean that the sums recoverable are equivalent to damages at common law. Megaw J said at p 34 that there was no other meaning to be given to the phrase other than what it would have in relation to a breach of contract: In Hadley v Baxendale, considered it should be worried that at no issue does he mention to that case ...