25 Tips to Help You Avoid Costly Claims and Disputes
Often people ask us, 'what are the key things we must do to avoid disputes and claims?'. Good news - we've compiled all of them into one handy document of top tips to avoid claims and disputes!
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Notices: Should a Contractor submit if he is not sure whether he intends to make a claim?
A Claims Class blog follower recently asked for advice on the correct interpretation of FIDIC Sub-Clause 20.1 (Contractor’s Claims). What happens in situations where the Contractor is not sure if it will submit a claim or not - should they submit a notice of claim?
Often the Contractor becomes aware of an event that may cause delay, additional Cost or entitlement for additional payment. At that time, he may not be aware of the final effect of the event.
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5 Tips for Success When Claiming for Variations
A question that I am often asked during CPD talks and claims training courses is “is it necessary to submit claims for a variation?”. Unfortunately, I am going to have to give a lawyer’s answer to this and say that “it depends”. There are however essential elements to a successful claim.
If the party responsible for administering the contract follows the procedure set out in most forms of contracts for instructing variations, then the answer is “no”, because the variation has been acknowledged and it will either be measured and evaluated as part of the remeasurement on a remeasureable contract or as a separate evaluation leading to a change of the contract price of a lump sum contract.Read more
How To Ensure Engineer’s Responses And Instructions Do Not Result In Expensive Claims
A request came from one of our blog followers. It was to examine the Engineer’s duty to provide instructions and responses within a reasonable time. In my experience, failure of the Engineer to comply with such obligations often gives rise to claims. Delayed issue of drawings or instructions are a regular feature of projects around the world.
I shall use the 1999 FIDIC Red Book as an example, although other forms of contract also contain similar provisions.
Contractors! Are Your Claims Responded to Correctly?
EC Harris’ (now Arcadis) Global Construction Dispute Report has, for many years, cited inadequately expressed claims as being one of the top five causes of disputes in the construction industry.
Late Payment: What Can We Do When We Don't Get Paid?
What can we do if we don't get paid or suffer from late payment? We get this question a lot at claims class, along with similar questions about late certification.
In some regions, this is less of a problem because legislation is quite strict on payment terms. However, elsewhere, it is common for the paying party to hang onto money for as long as possible.Read more
Trying Your Luck - Where do you draw the line with your claim submissions?
I was recently asked a question by one of our distance learning students which, at some time or another, you may have asked yourself. The question was:Read more
Practical Use of the FIDIC Contracts Intermediate E-Course | Accepting Trial Students!
You may have seen last year that Claims Class has stepped into the world of online learning and to kick things off, we launched our Construction Claims Basic and Construction Claims Intermediate E-Courses in 2017.Read more
The Second Edition of the FIDIC Rainbow Suite has Arrived
At a packed International Contract Users’ Conference held in London on 5-6 December 2017, FIDIC finally unveiled the Second Edition of the 1999 Rainbow Suite, Red, Yellow and Silver Books. Whilst the Second Edition largely follows the 2016 pre-release version of the Yellow Book, FIDIC have taken on board some of the comments made by the friendly reviewers, and made a number of important changes.Read more
20 Changes in the FIDIC 2017 Editions From a Claims Perspective
I have just returned from the FIDIC International User’s Conference in London, attended by roughly 400 delegates and speakers, all there to hear about the new editions of the Red, Yellow and Silver FIDIC Forms of Contract. In this blog, I have highlighted 20 changes that are of particular relevance to claims practitioners. They include a number of new terms, including 'Exceptional Events' to replace 'Employer's risk' and 'force majeure' events and many more:Read more