The retention is a separate ‘pot’ of money, which increases in line with the price paid to the contractor. Retention is the contractor’s money which the employer kidnaps and holds to ransom until the end of the defects period. According to the 2017 BEIS research paper retention is “is a
Serendipity… when you open your book on a crisp autumn Sunday morning (A Brief History of Everyone Who Has Ever Lived) and get the inspiration for your next contract tips? Or when you dig in the corner of a site and find what you had been hoping for? Read the
One of the contract traps for anyone providing construction works is a fitness for purpose obligation. This type of strict liability output obligation is rarely expressly included in a construction contract* (one of the arguments being that it is not covered by standard insurances). However… Fit for furpose Whenever I
To work out whether works, goods or services are ‘extra’ ie a change to the original scope, you need to know (1) the extent of the original scope as well as (2) how your contract defines changes/variations/extras – this can be pretty wide (eg JCT), narrow (MF/1), or non-existent (NEC).
The 2018 TSB online banking saga has once again highlighted the issue of wriggle room in contracts. Wriggling in court Before specialising in advising on contract strategy and writing/negotiating contracts, I had the pleasure of winning a case in the Court of Appeal. It involved what I call ‘advanced wriggling.’
This is the best contract I have ever received if at any time you are not happy with my services, we can walk away and I will not charge you. It said everything I needed to hear succinctly and clearly. Your contract needs to state the scope of your services,
In ‘The Four Agreements’ Don Miguel Ruiz introduces the wisdom of the Toltecs. Given the title and my specialism, my attention was hooked into how it related to contract law and contract negotiation. He says: “Language is the code for understanding and communication between humans. Every letter, every word in
According to the NBS Contracts and Law Survey 2018, scope creep disrupted projects more than any other factor: Variations were also the main cause of 42% of disputes. So what can we do about scope creep? Are
Do your contracts demonstrate your honesty and trustworthiness? There are more than 50 ways to lose credibility and trust (read more) but if you want to be the right sort of company to do business with, read on. Read the full edition here » It’s snowing here, but it feels
Early in 2018 on twitter, plain language expert Dominique Joseph (@clearerworld), Tim Cummins (@tcummins from the IACCM), Ken Adams (@KonciseD) watched closely by Stefania Passera (@StewieKee), asked who was doing a good job of making contracts more user-friendly? Initially, we got side-tracked because Dom had framed her question to ask