Although Marie Kondo might be the 21st minimalist icon, back in the 19th century William Morris said: have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful We can apply this approach to contracts. What do we know to be useful or
What do you really need for a collateral warranty on a construction project? This post sets out the graveyard ie those clauses your warranty DOESN’T need. (tl;dr anything beyond a promise to comply with the underlying contract is probably unnecessary) Quality, copyright and insurance Most warranties go above and beyond
If we look behind the tick-box approach to collateral warranties, do we need to think again about taking a process approach to these largely ineffective agreements? Purpose of a warranty The core purpose of a warranty is to create an additional contractual link, providing a smooth avenue for a stakeholder
Why does the world need another book? The last book in my series on Construction Contracts in Just 500 Words was published on 5 November – to reflect the UK tradition of putting rockets up the establishment. I’m not trying to blow up Parliament as Guido Fawkes was, but merely prompting the
The annual ARCADIS Global Disputes Reports consistently link construction disputes with failures to: Administer the contract properly (i.e. run the project) Understand or comply with the contract’s obligations Use the procedures in the contract. If you create a letter of intent that is easy to read, easy to understand and
Like any contract, your letter of intent should accurately, briefly and concisely describe what the parties have agreed. Essentially, using a letter of intent means the parties have not agreed all the commercial aspects for the project, or all the legal terms for the full contract. The parties have agreed
Autumn here brings me a new cohort of students who are starting the University of Salford’s Masters in Construction Law. I am the tutor for the first module, on English contract law and we have been discussing the requirements for a contract. It never ceases to surprise me how often
The fundamental purpose of a letter of intent is to help you do business by getting your project underway quickly. There is a right way to start your project quickly and a wrong way. Why recycling is bad! Let’s assume you (acting for the paying party, whether that’s the developer/client
Collateral warranties (if you don’t know what they are, read what is a collateral warranty) are common on UK construction projects. The problem that they were designed to address is that if the works or services are performed defectively then it won’t necessarily be the employer of the wrongdoers who
Although it was over 200 pages (with 30 pages of defined terms), given that it had been through 21 iterations and redrafts, you would have thought the lawyers would have ironed out all the wrinkles and resolved any drafting issues… or not! A contract relating to joint ventures and letters
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