The Perfect Claim
Andy's Blog,Construction Claims,E-Courses
January 13, 2020
Exciting news: We spent a large chunk of 2019 developing a new course, The Perfect Claim. Now, we’re ready to share it with you in 2020. But first, let’s take a step back. Why the need for another course?
Well…
Construction and Contract News 2019
FIDIC,Construction Claims,Industry Commentary,Disputes
December 26, 2019
As we look ahead to 2020 and back on the past year, what has changed and what should we be looking out for in the world of construction contract and claims? We take a look in this round-up of construction and contract news from around the world…
Case Study: In-House Training for Government Employees in Africa
Andy's Blog,Construction Claims
December 10, 2019
As well as delivering online e-courses, we offer in-house training for companies. We were approached by the government department responsible for roads and highways in an African country. The department was experiencing several problems related to claims and wanted to train their in-house staff on how claims should be managed effectively. The problems were:Read more
Should I Consider In-House Training?
October 21, 2019
We all know that ongoing development and training are important for the continued success and growth of business. Professional institutions insist their members continually improve their knowledge and enhance their understanding. There are a plethora of options available. Training can be external or held in-house, bespoke or standard, on any manner of subject or content.
Many organisations now offer courses and training to help bring the skills of your team up to a higher level. The e-courses offered by Claims Class and our workshops are an example. Many firms offer free seminars. There are one-day courses, distance learning, academic courses and many other options available.
One option you might not have considered is in-house training. But why should you think about bringing your training in-house? And what are the potential benefits? What are the risks? We take a look...
How to Manage and Minimise the Submission of Spurious Claims
FIDIC,Construction Claims,Responses & Determinations
September 24, 2019
The Claims Class blog has attracted loyal readers over the years. We get lots of comments as well as questions on issues that our readers are dealing with on their projects. And this often gives me inspiration for new articles. A reader recently asked how he could effectively manage and minimise the submission of spurious contractor's claims. So here are my thoughts...
Consultants need to spend a lot of time and effort to manage and respond to contractor's claims. So it's worth making sure that this time is spent working on justifiable claims, not on reviewing and responding to claims where the contractor has no entitlement, or to those that have not been submitted in an appropriate manner to enable a proper review and response.
Remember that the onus is on the claimant to prove the case. Even though most contracts require consultants toRead more
Top 10 Tips for Effective Letter Writing
September 19, 2019
One of the things I notice when I review the records to prepare a claim, review claims on behalf of the respondent, or review particulars put forward in a dispute, is the poor standard of letter writing. This ranges from “could have been better” right through to “I have no idea what this letter means”. If your letters fall into these categories, you are not doing yourself or your company any favours. In fact, you could be doing considerable harm. This blog, therefore, contains my Top 10 Tips for effective letter writing.
The Engineer’s Responses and Determinations: What Should be Included?
FIDIC,Construction Claims,Industry Commentary,Responses & Determinations
September 3, 2019
Earlier this year I presented a CPD talk to RICS members in Dubai on the topic of Engineer’s Responses and Determinations. I usually like to kick things of with a poll and I asked the group the following questions:
How many people have experienced a situation where the Engineer does not respond to a claim within the contractual time-frame? Almost everyone confirmed that they had.
How many people have experienced a situation where the Engineer’s response has done little to resolve the claim? Again, almost everyone confirmed that they had.
How many people have experienced a situation where the Engineer’s response has caused the matter to be escalated to a dispute? Over 50% of attendees confirmed that they had.
How many think that failures of the Engineer to carry out their contractual obligations with respect to claims is helpful to projects? No one thought that this helped projects.
This is clear feedback from RICS members that the Engineers often do not perform their obligations and that this has a detrimental effect on projects.
So, what should Engineer’s be doing to help projects when responding to claims? Well, as usual, the contract provides the answers, so let’s have a look at what the FIDIC Red Book has to say on the subject.Read more
How to Ensure you Avoid Costly and Time-Consuming Disputes on your Projects
FIDIC,Construction Claims,E-Courses,Industry Commentary,Disputes
August 19, 2019
ARCADIS have just published their annual Global Construction Disputes Report 2019 and it makes interesting, but, not altogether surprising reading.
This year, the top three reasons for disputes are:
- Owner/Contractor/Subcontractor failing to understand and/or comply with its contractual obligations;
- Errors and/or omissions in the contract document;
- Failure to properly administer the contract.
Some other interesting noteworthy observations are:Read more
Q&A: Delay Analysis
Andy's Blog,Construction Claims
June 24, 2019
In partnership with the CIOB, Claims Class is running a series of monthly webinars on construction claims. The webinars are based on our Construction Claims e-courses and workshops and have attracted between 150 and 300 attendees per session.
At the end of each webinar, we invite questions and send the attendees answers to any questions that we do not have time to answer during the webinar. I've been sharing the Q&A responses on our blog (see blogs on Q&A: Contract Administration and Q&A: Types of Claim) and we've received good feedback from our readers. So, I've decided to do the same for this month's blog. The following are questions and answers from the webinar on Delay Analysis.Read more
Q&A: Types of Construction Claims
Andy's Blog,Construction Claims
May 28, 2019
In partnership with the CIOB, Claims Class is running a series of monthly webinars on construction claims. The webinars are a condensed version of our Construction Claims e-courses.
At the end of each webinar, we invite questions and send the attendees answers to any questions that we do not have time to answer during the webinar. I thought that this would provide some useful insight to our blog readers. The following are questions and answers from the webinar on Types of Claim.Read more