How long do you have to give a recalcitrant contractor to get their act together, before you are allowed to give up and get someone else to finish your project? The issue of termination is fraught with pitfalls, but cases can help you understand your rights. Cheating on a client
There is no point having a simple and effective set of terms and conditions (T&C) if you don’t manage to get them included in your contracts. If you haven’t managed to get a contract signed, can T&C printed on the reverse of your invoices count? Incorporating T&C There are a
The issue of quality is a thorny one on construction projects and covers everything from the construction process, to use and performance. The two main standards are reasonable skill and care, or fitness for purpose. Unless a contract clearly specifies a different standard, then you may have to rely on
An English idiom, from the 16th century confirms that you cannot both eat your cake and have it… which has been reversed (nonsensically) into ‘you cannot have your cake and eat it’! For contracts, this means you cannot have all three core objectives in one project. You cannot have both
Contracts are not often described as user-friendly… more often they are noted as being the opposite. That may be harsh if it comes from a user, but it is feedback you need to act on if it comes from a judge. Not user-friendly In Blu-Sky v Be Caring the English
How patient are you? Frankly, I am not sure if my home was in chaos and my son was about to sit important exams, that I’d be very patient at all! But that doesn’t mean I would be contractually ‘in the right’. This lesson comes from a relatively simple refurbishment
Creating a contract on a standard form is relatively straightforward… isn’t it? Ms Wild bought a 1970s house in Cheshire and wanted to renovate it. Her professional drawn up specification envisaged that any contract would be on the RIBA Domestic Building Contract 2014 (a relatively short and simple building contract).
The problem with being too focused on the deal, is that sometimes you don’t record what you think you have both agreed. In Donovan v Grainmarket (2021), the Court of Appeal said: the task of deciding what the parties had agreed was not easy [as] the parties’ contract was not
What is a performance bond? Despite its name, a performance bond doesn’t guarantee performance – the surety promises to pay up to a specific sum for some sort of contractor breach provided the employer gives it enough evidence. If you’d like an analogy, think of them as a type of
Any contract – whatever its subject, however long it is, whether paper-based, digital or verbal – can have terms added to by either legislation, custom or by case law. These additions are called implied terms. This post summarises a recent Court of Appeal decision which clarified when/how the courts can
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