Date Posted: 14 February 2012 The New Construction Act The Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 came into force on 1 October 2011. The Act modifies some sections of the ‘old’ Housing Grants and Construction Regeneration Act 1996. The modified 1996 Act is often referred to as the New Construction Act. Amongst other significant changes the new act addresses some of the issues that have been experienced in respect to payment. [...]

Date Posted: 07 December 2011 What is winter working? Winter working is often used to describe the effects when delays cause a project to be pushed from summer months into winter months. If the winter weather encountered is worse and the working conditions are more difficult than those in the summer months, when the project was planned to be carried out, then it is likely that the knock on effect will be to [...]

Date Posted: 02 December 2011 ramskill martin’s previous article “The Cold War: NEC and Adverse Weather Conditions” explained the NEC’s strict contractual rules for assessing when adverse weather is a Compensation Event. The article explained the 2 stage process: Calculating if there is a Compensation Event. Assessing the Compensation Event. This article will explain the equivalent steps in JCT contracts and describes how an assessment under the JCT contracts is much more subjective. [...]

Date Posted: 25 November 2011   December 2010 was the coldest December in 100 years. ramskill martin issued its article “Delays Caused by Adverse Weather Conditions” by way of its email dated 13 December 2010 titled “SNOW PATROL – CONTRACTUAL NOTICES”. This article provides an update which focuses on the NEC3 suite of contracts. Standard forms of contract apportion the risk of bad weather in very different ways. In GC Works contracts weather [...]

JCT 2011 This is the second part of our review of the JCT 2011 suite of contracts dealing with the changes made to reflect the amendments to The Housing Grants Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 brought about by the Local Democracy Economic Development and Construction Act 2009. In this article we have considered the Design and Build form of contract and the JCT Subcontracts. Design and Build Practically, the most significant changes are [...]

JCT 2011 The principal purpose for the release of the 2011 editions of the JCT suite of contracts is to reflect the amendments to The Housing Grants Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 brought about by the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009. The main changes relate to the payment terms and payment related notices. The amendments relating to Adjudication do not require any changes to the contract because the JCT suite [...]

The Construction Act and NEC 3 On the 15 September 2011 the Institution of Civil Engineers issued the amendments to the NEC 3 suite of contracts to take account of the Local Democracy Economic Development and Construction Act 2009. The amendments make revisions to both the adjudication and payment conditions. The changes required to the adjudication provisions are made by way of amendments to Option W2 for most of the contacts. In the [...]

When does it come into force? The new Act will come into force on the 1 October 2011 (1 November 2011 in Scotland). Changes to The Housing Grants Construction & Regeneration Act 1996 (The Construction Act) will be made by way of part 8 of The Local Demoncracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009. The new Act will not affect contracts entered into prior to the 1October2011 but all contracts entered into after [...]

In 2010 we saw the landmark decision in City Inn v Shepherd which was much commented upon, mainly because the judges apportioned delays for extensions of time. It was suggested that although this was a Scottish case it would be used as guidance by the English courts. However many considered that the position in City Inn v Shepherd was not the position in English law and a recent case supports that view. Adyard [...]

This article reviews the case law relating to time related concurrency in construction. The case law has seen a number of fundamental shifts in the last decade or so and as yet some of the underlying principles remain unresolved. What is a delay? A delay can occur to either the progress of the works or to the completion of the works. Usually when we talk about a delaying event we mean a delay [...]

I’ll tell you a story About Jack a Nory; And now my story’s begun; I’ll tell you another Of Jack and his brother, And now my story is done. Presenting a claim for adjudication is concerned primarily with telling a clear and persuasive story, making plain what happened on site or during the design process, and how this did or did not cause loss. To be effective the narrative needs to be concise [...]

Another Brick in the Wall Sometimes we tend to think that construction law is somehow ring fenced from the general law. This is, of course, not the case and most of the fundamental principles which we use in construction contracts are derived from cases which fall outside of the construction industry. In December 2010 the case of Pink Floyd Music Limited -and- EMI Records Limited [2010] EWCA Civ 1429 was heard in the [...]

REPUDIATION IS A TERM TO DESCRIBE CIRCUMSTANCES WHERE one party makes it clear that it does not intend to accept its obligations and perform them, or that it is incapable of doing so. REPUDIATION BY ONE PARTY ALONE DOES NOT TERMINATE THE CONTRACT The innocent party has to accept the repudiation to rescind the contract; that is to bring it to an end. ACCEPTANCE OF A REPUDIATION can be by communication or conduct [...]

Notification Under JCT and NEC Forms of Contact WHEN IS AN ADVERSE WEATHER CLAIM NOT AN ADVERSE WEATHER CLAIM? NEC FORMS OF CONTRACT -V- JCT CONTRACTS DO NOT LOSE YOUR RIGHTS JCT and NEC forms of contract are commonly used throughout the UK. Contractors and subcontractors used to working under JCT standard forms of contract are aware that they can make a claim for lost time for adverse weather conditions and protect themselves [...]

Use of NEC Contracts NEC contracts are being used more and more particularly with public Works. In the current climate it is important to be able to effectively tender and then manage these contracts. The use of this family of contracts will increase over the coming years as it is the preferred option of most public bodies. With 25 years combined experience of managing and dealing with problems in NEC contracts and subcontracts [...]