Blog

We currently have two e-course options on the topic of Construction Claims: Basic and Intermediate. But what’s the difference? And which one should you take if you’re looking improve how you write and manage construction claims? In this blog we look at each course and answer those questions to help you decide which one could be best for you…

Construction Claims Basic E-Course

The Construction Claims Basic E-Course is our ‘no frills’ course. You get 24 video tutorials delivered via 6 modules that focus on:

1. Contract Administration for Claims
2. Types of Claims and Procedures
3. Delay Analysis
4. The Essential Elements to a Successful Claim
5. Compilation and Presentation of Claims and Responses
6. Responses, Determinations and Disputes

You simply sign up and work through the videos at your own pace. 

Construction Claims Intermediate E-Course

By comparison, the Construction Claims Intermediate E-Course offers a more practical and involved learning experience.

You still get 24 video tutorials delivered via the same 6 modules but you also get: (more…)

Depending on where you are in the World, you may or may not be aware that certain political sanctions were recently imposed against Qatar by Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Diplomatic ties have been severed and an embargo on all land, air and sea connections between these countries and Qatar has been put in place.

Given the fact that Qatar is very busy constructing a number of projects in preparation for the FIFA World Cup in 2022, it’s unsurprising that we have had some requests for advice from contractors whose operations in Qatar have been affected by the sanctions and are who are looking for a means of claiming extensions of time and/or damages. Most of the queries are along the lines of: are claims eligible under the FIDIC provisions of force majeure?

(more…)

It’s no secret by now (we hope!) that Claims Class is launching e-courses in 2017 and, over the past couple of months, we have been running a trial of our first e-course, a Construction Claims Intermediate E-Course.

Running the trial was definitely a worthy exercise. We gained some great feedback from our students and learnt some valuable lessons ourselves, all of which have gone into improving the course and creating the final version. In this blog, we explore the trial process, share the key takeaways and showcase the final version of the e-course.

The Trial

The trial included 18 students from all over the world who agreed to complete the course within a given time-frame and provide feedback on each module as they progressed through the course. When the trial ended, we had gathered 108 feedback forms that gave us key insight into the following areas: (more…)

Many years ago when I used to deal with the JCT forms of contract, if a nominated subcontractor delayed the works, the contractor could use this as a legitimate reason to claim an extension of time. Either things have either changed since then, or not all forms of contract take this view.

Under the FIDIC Red Book form of contract, the Engineer may appoint a nominated subcontractor, but once the Contractor has accepted the nomination, he becomes responsible for the actions of the subcontractor and may not claim for any failures of the subcontractor.

In a situation where the Engineer nominates a subcontractor who has submitted a competitive price but is incapable of providing adequate performance (does this sound familiar at all?) it seems inequitable to make the Contractor responsible when he has had nothing to do with the selection of the subcontractor. Does the Contractor have any recourse in such a scenario? Well, sort of, as we will see.

(more…)

Let’s take a look at what has been happening in the Gulf construction market recently.

Drake & Skull announced plans for a major restructuring after suffering losses in 2016 of AED 787M, an improvement on 2015 when they lost AED 939M. A few weeks ago 8,000 employees of the 40 year old company Saudi Oger received letters announcing that 31st July 2017 will be their last day at work. The company apparently owes $3.5Bn to Saudi banks. Arabtec needed a cash injection early this year too after announcing losses of AED 3.4Bn in 2016. In 2015 the losses were reported at AED 2.35Bn. In March last year Al Jaber missed a debt repayment of AED16.2Bn which had been put in place in 2014 to restructure the company and in August, they announced the sale of their share in ALEC and the Shangri-La Hotel Abu Dhabi to finance yet another restructuring exercise. Then there’s the fall out between Al Habtoor and Leighton, the list goes on and this is just the tip of the iceberg for the Gulf construction industry…the small sub-contractors, sub sub-contractors and suppliers don’t make news in the financial press.

What is going on with contractors in the Gulf? Is there no work?

(more…)