Contract Law

Contract Law

1. Intro

   • Time is very important for a construction project when analysing its success (Adriaanse, 2010). Failing to meet completion dates results in incurring costs in the form of liquidated damages, as well as disrupting the client. It's crucial to a project's performance to consider time for the duration of a project, factoring it into a bid and managing it throughout its construction. After completion, it is the role of the contract administrator to issue the appropriate certificates (Hughes, Champion, and Murdoch, 2015). This analyses the criteria by which completion is assessed, as well as discussing the relationship between certification and liquidated damages. This discussion will also look at the procedures of certification which should be followed in accordance with a JCT SBC 11 contract.

2. Paragraph 1: Contractor's Legal Obligations

   • The contractor has a legal obligation to complete construction works by the set completion date. Should the contractor exceed this date it is considered a breach of contract, entitling the other party to terminate the contract. Termination of a contract is rarely justifiable, and instead clients will seek financial remedy of damaged, under JCB SBC 11 clause (Hughes, Champion, and Murdoch, 2015). This financial remedy is known as liquidated damages, which consist of a daily fee lasting the length of the delay.

3. Paragraph 2: Extension of Time

   • However, x amount of extension time was granted by z who we can assume is the contract administrator. The contract administrator is responsible for issuing extensions of time, as well as being responsible for the issuing of appropriate certificates under the Contracts Act 1999. Extensions of time are usually granted when the delay in the project is the fault of the employer. JCT SBC 11 clause 2.29 lists the various causes of delay which entitle an issuing of extension of time (Champion, Hughes, and Murdoch, 2015). One such cause is variations; if the contractor is given new requirements by the client then they are no longer legally required to complete the work by the completion date. The work must instead by completed in a 'reasonable time' (Bartholomew, 1997). In these circumstances, the contractor also isn't obligated to pay liquidated damages as the delay is the employer's fault and cannot be measured accurately, leading to the failure of liquidated damages provisions.
     • The completion date of a project can only be changed by the contract administrator if it complies with the contract's provisions. In a JCT contract, this would be under an extension of time clause.