Claims?

Mimoune,

And that’s the way it should be, and in reality is for the vast majority of projects. Don’t know how many construction projects happen in the UK each year, many thousand I’m sure of which a couple of hundred or so each year end up in court. The proportion is small.

Mimoune

Only a few and major Contractors refer their Claims to arbitration/litigation. Mostly Contractors settle their claims during the negotiation of Final Account.

Your quoted example is really good for construction industry. Better to settle the claims amicably rather than refer the matter to litigation/arbitration to save time and money.

Mimoune,

That is indeed very good news for the industry, however, what was not said was how they overcame what must have been a large number of claims submitted by the various Contractors.

Most Forms of Contract set out a series of procedures that must be carried out prior to Arbitration/Litigation i.e. Engineer’s Decisions, Amicable Settlement, Adjudication etc.

I would imagine the size of the Contractors involved on the stated Project had their own in-house "experts" which would have put together the claims and presented them to the Client for review/discusion/agreement.

The agreement of Claims really can depend on the mind-set of the contracting parties.

It is highly possible that the project employed a Dispute Board and so were able to resolve any problems amicably as the project progressed.

I wonder if anybody involved in the project reads this forum and could perhaps enlighten us?

Lawyers are/should be the last resort. Both sides usually lose. Money sure, but more important reputation. By the time it gets to lawyers is a personality contest and not necessarily best for either company/party.
Any PM who has not been involved with a lawyer either has done a good job or had good press or of course compromised. He should be justifiably proud.
As a rule, Norweigians & Swedish just get on with the job and are pretty laid back, fair and square.
Coming from a Scottish person working in O & G in Norway not Civils Construction I burn bridges. I dont built ’em.

there you go again gwen extreme hot

For a PM who was never involved with a lawyer, I jumped ship and did a legal qualification!!!!!! I have seen lawyers save a party a very considerable amount of money so they have their uses. The reverse is also true.

As for Norweigians & Swedish (can’t remember which) - they just come over, build something that later collapses, kills a few people and then they sit at home avoiding the court fines and costs. Ramsgate Walkway collapse for those who are wondering what I’m on about.

I await Gwens reply!

I am sure the Swedish deisgner’s decision not to attend the legal proceedings in the UK was based on legal advise provided by a lawyer.

So, as you say Andrew they do have the potential to save a party a considerable amount of money.

What that flat pack or built conventionally?

Nice one

Gwen,

I think the walkway was built conventionally but ended up as a flat pack - hence the problem!!!

Stay at home - that small bit of advice saved £1.5 million in fines and costs.

Hi Guys,

Lawyers have no place in construction, that is why we have quantity surveyors our bean counters/legal eagles. However, sometimes things get rough and you have to revert to the dirt of employing lawyers. The way out is partnering, ie transparency and honesty. The NEC is one route to achieve this, but the other route is to set up the system to work with commucation and genuine partnering to ensure the timely completion of the project. The problems usually starts when the planners become involved with legal issues rather than trying to find solutions to the problem. The object of planning is to find a way around late completion, not to provide, solutions to how much you can claim, this resides with the QS’s and the planners only provide backup.
At the end of the day, the costs for timeous completion has to be paid by the client, and with effective planning/partnering,’he’ will probably agree.

Regards,

Philip

eh what’s NEC !!!

The NEC Contract is a legal framework of project management procedures designed to handle all aspects of the management of engineering and construction projects. Its benefits – stimulus to good management, flexibility and simplicity – can be applied to any project, large or small. It comprises of suite of contract documents and guidance books and a range of support services comprising training, consultancy and a Users’ Group.

for more information go to
http://www.neccontract.co.uk/

Basically a susggestion to improve PP website - it won’t be a bad idea if we start compiling the planning related TLA’s (Three letter acronyms) as a resource in the site.

Hi guys,

Well put Daya, The NEC is also there to keep the lawyers out and the construction professionals in, without conflict.

The last post idea was good, a library of jargon, each individual thinks because he knows the jargon, everybody else knows it. This does not only relate to jargon, but also to terms. We sometimes refer to things by maybe brand names etc. I recently took some flack, because of the term ’Alimak’ in the program, because nobody knew what it meant, however everybody involved with the construction knew it was a ’rack and pinion personel hoist’ but that did not help the guys that did not know. I tend to use abreviations, I am used to, for example TRXF for transformer, andother simular things, maybe there is a scope for building a standard dictionary of abbreviations and terms, to include generic items and the like, a bit of a challenge to PP Admin.

Regards

Philip

Philip,

Is a Utility company employed directly by the Contractor a Sub Contractor under the NEC?

Hi Andrew,

I am not sure what your question is, as I have not been on a NEC project where utility companies was used. However, on one of the projects I have worked (with the managing contractor) some of the contractors was directly employed by the client but managed by us. All the contractors or subbies have al the same rights under the NEC in terms of compensation events ("Claims"), etc.
On the project I am currently on we have some 800 utility diversions, some of which we use contractors to do, and others are done by the utility owners themselves. But as this is not a NEC project I do not know the correct answer to your question.

Regards

Philip.