course material

1. M32089 Construction Law, Contracts And Dispute Resolution
Answers:
Introduction
A dispute resolution related to the construction contracts is considered vital that can be
prevented through potential legal action (Hansen, 2020). The construction disputes arise
when one of the parties to the contract has breached the requirements of the contract in
some manner. There are chances that a miscommunication has been occurred between the
parties due to which the dispute arises (El-Sayegh et al., 2020). The conflicts among the
parties may occur due to delays in the contract, any type of incomplete claims and failure to
make the enforcement of the contract. Also, the dispute does not always occur due to the
breach of the contract but there are chances that any kind of dispute arises among the party
then the result is the termination of the contract. The beginning of the construction dispute
resolution is from the contract itself which includes the clauses related to the dispute
(Barnett & Treleaven, 2018). Some preventive steps can be taken like understanding the
requirements of the contract, the conditions related to pre-construction work and
negotiations being made regarding the potential clauses which might be unclear. There
should be documentation of several challenges as well as issues that might occur at the time
of execution of the project (Georgiadou, 2019). The paper will recognize the provisions of
certain legislation related to the construction contract as well as the legislation prescribes
the minimum that is established for the purpose of adjudication regarding the arising of the
dispute. The health, as well as safety of the workers, has been accomplished with regards to
the comparison that will be made with the other legislation. It will accomplish certain
obligations concerning the client at the time of payment. It also will recognize some
remedies that are available to the employer under the contract. It will also determine
certain problems that are occurred in a certain case situation. It will accomplish several
procedures for evaluating the solution that can be adopted by the parties for solving their
problems.
Construction Law And Regulations
Part 1
Section 108 of Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act1996 describes the rights
of the parties to refer the matter for adjudication in the court (UK Legislation, 2021). The

2. dispute refers to the court being subjected to the procedure prescribed in the legislation.
The nature of the Act determines the notice period to be given to the party regarding arising
of the intention of dispute and the matter within 7 days of notice makes an appointment
concerning the adjudicator. The decision should be made by the court within 28 days after
the filing of the case. It is the duty of adjudicators that they should act in an impartial
manner for making a decision on the case. The section states that the decision made by the
adjudicator is regarded as binding upon the parties. It is upon the parties the acceptance the
decision made by the court. Also, the provisions of the Arbitration Act 1996 are been
applied in England and Wales (Mohamed Nasir et al., 2018). The contract involves the
relevant provision in written format that recognizes the permission given to the adjudicator
for making his decision to be correct. The decision might exclude any kind of typographical
error that has been arising by the reason of any act or omission.
The Construction Act 1996 regulates the employment as well as conditions of services
regarding the building along with the other workers who do work of construction. The
nature of the act is to provide safety, welfare measures, health and other matters that are
related to it. The Act regulates the provision regarding the grants as well as other kinds of
assistance that are required for housing purposes. It also includes requirements related to
unfit housing, amendment of any construction contracts, grants to be provided regarding
regeneration as well as development related to the clearance areas (Navrátil et al., 2021). It
also includes home energy schemes that are considered efficient and the relevant provision
is to be evaluated that is connected to the dissolution concerning to urban corporations. The
objective of Part 1 concerning the Act is related to provisions concerning adaptations made
for disabled persons. The full-time care is provided to them along with it the reduction is
made with respect to the care that is provided to them in their homes. Part 2 defines the
payment been made concerning to construction industry. The Act determines about the
contract that has been continued for more than 45 days is entitled to payment at different
stages.
Part 2
The purpose of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 is to secure the health, welfare and
safety of the persons that are working (ILO, 2021). They are protected against such risks to
their health that has a connection with their activities at the workplace. It is related to the
safety of a person from the usage of dangerous substances at the workplace. The purpose of
the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 is to improve the health as
well as safety of persons that are working in the construction industry (UK Legislation,
2021a). They help in planning the work that involves managing the risk from the beginning
to the end. They also help in the coordination of work of one person with the others. Figure
2 states about the CDM Report phase which is important during the construction project.
The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 is based upon the safety of workers from any kind
of hazardous substances while in contrast to it the CDM Regulations 2015 is dependent

3. upon the management of risk that has been involved in the workplace during the
involvement of JCT contract. There has been the establishment of the Health and Safety
Commission as well as the health and safety executive which is been appointed under the
Act 1974 while in the CDM 2015 there has been the appointment of a principal contractor
as well as a principal designer (HSE, 2021).
Office Building Project
The problems regarding payment as well as cash flow are considered important in the
construction industry. When the party to the NEC4 does not make the payment of money
then it automatically states that the party does not want to continue their obligations
regarding the construction project. In the case scenario, a contract was formed for making
an office building. The work on the office building has started two months ago and
continued properly. An interim valuation has been prepared by the client’s QS and later it
got certified by the contract administrator (Sanni et al., 2020). Later, the contractor was not
able to get the money concerning valuation number one. It is said that the non-payment of
money in the construction contracts can be referred to as such that can take any form like;
No payment.
Late payment.
Reduced payment.
It is said that any party to the NEC4 contract wanted to terminate the obligations of the
contractor then they are required to notify the other parties as well as the project manager
with genuine reason regarding the termination of the contract. The contract of NEC4
authorizes the “communication system” for example cloud software (Omotayo et al., 2021).
It is important to make use of such things for avoiding the use of the notification method.
The client has the obligation that they can terminate the contract when certain conditions
are satisfied and the reasons for termination is been mentioned in the clauses. Clause 91
prescribes some reasons that must be presented during the termination of the contract by
the client. Certain case laws regarding the right to remedies has been prescribed in the
Figure 1.
Any kind of prevention events faced by the client then they can terminate the contract. The
occurrence of the prevention event may be such that can be called a compensation event
and it cannot be determined as a reason for termination during the completion is delay that
is made after 13 weeks. When there is the involvement of any activities leading to
corruption being made by the contractor which gives the power to the client to terminate
the contract stated in Clause 90.2. Also, the contractor has the authority to terminate the
contract when they have not received the money within 13 weeks. It is said that the
acceptance of the project manager is necessary before issuing any certificate for
termination of the contract. In the instance, Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd v Merit
Merrell Technology (2017) EWHC 1763 states the process that can be used by the

4. contractor during the termination of the contract (Jackson, 2018). As the protection is been
provided to the parties to the contract when there is the involvement of repudiation which
is a result of invalid termination from one party.
The remedy to the employer concerning the contract is dependent upon the procedures as
well as amounts due regarding the reason for termination. The employer has the remedy to
terminate the contract when they have not received the payment from their client within 13
weeks. In the case scenario, there is no completion of 13 weeks from the beginning of the
contract there are chances that the employer cannot claim the remedy of termination of the
contract. If there is an application of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act
1996 then the non-payment is regarded as important for the purpose of paying less notice.
It is the duty of the project manager to decide whether the non-payment is regarded as
justified or not along with it they notice that has been served properly before a termination
certificate has been issued.
The client has the obligation to complete the work irrespective of any reason regarding the
termination. There are certain remedies that can be availed by the parties during the
waiting period of payment. Some remedies are also prescribed under the Figure 3 The
suitable remedy is dependent upon the nature as well as seriousness of the dispute between
the parties. Certain options are as follows;
A statutory right regarding the suspension. Also, such rights can be included in the
contractual right.
There is a statutory or contractual right regarding the claiming of the interest.
The contract can be terminated.
A statutory or contractual right regarding referring the dispute to be made for adjudication.
The arbitration proceedings, as well as commencement of court, can be made regarding the
recovery of payment as well as recovery of damages.
In the case scenario, the appropriate course of action can be an initiation of the arbitration
proceedings regarding the recovery of the money which can be made by the employer. It is
upon the employer that an arbitration proceeding can be initiated through which they can
recover the payment. Another course of action is the claiming of interest which the
employer can claim from the contract. An employer has the right to ask for the payment as
there are only administrative errors in the contract then it would not be appropriate if the
contract has been terminated on such grounds.
Warehouse And Offices Project
Load testing concerning bearing piles has made an estimate that is related to 4-6 % of the
total value of the piling market. The cost of load testing varies in different cases. The load
testing plays a significant role in the engineering contracts that recognize sustainability
things as well as financial terms. When there is a combination of behavioural as well as

5. environmental factors then sometimes it may lead to the occurrence of construction dispute
among the parties (Hou et al., 2020). It is said that poor workmanship sometimes leads to
emotionally fraught the party to the contract as well as sometimes this can be out of pocket.
The last resort regarding such an issue is that a party can claim compensation concerning
the problems that he has suffered from it.
Reasonable care, as well as skills, are required regarding the construction contract which
involves the NEC4 contract (Finnie et al., 2018). The services that are been provided under
the contract must be within the reasonable care taken by the party to the contract. Also, the
services should be provided within a reasonable time. It is said that such conditions are not
satisfied then another party can claim the remedy to the contract. In the case scenario, the
design requirements have not been met due to which the dispute between the party has
arisen. Also, the representative of the client has seen the faulty workmanship due to which
they wanted to find the relevant solution to such problems. the solution to such problems is
that they can claim compensation for the faulty workmanship.
The rights under faulty workmanship are stated in the Consumer Rights Act and also in the
Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 which protects the consumer regarding the
construction building (Armour & Enriques, 2018). The party can adopt the procedure of
claiming the damages as they have the right to ask for the damages. When the party is
aware of the problem then they can make a contact with the builder along with it try to
explain the situation. They can get agreed on the course of action that is required to be
taken by one party. It is said that the NEC4 contract concerning constructing a warehouse as
well as offices breached the contract due to which remedial steps are required to be taken
by the party. Another solution can be referring the dispute to arbitration and the consumer
ombudsman has the authority to deal with such kinds of complaints. They are required to
solve the matter and determines the relevant solution to the problem.
In the current situation is the main problem that existed is faulty workmanship as it is
considered an important part of the contract. Another problem in the current situation is
load test results regarding the piling works as a certain number does not fulfil the criteria as
the design requirements have not been completed by them. Another problem is the due of
payment after the certification of interim valuation. The payment is required to be due
within 10 days but the client has said that there will be no further payment that can be
completed until such matter of faulty workmanship is been dealt with by them.
The solution to such a problem is that the dispute can be referred for arbitration as the
NEC4 contract prescribes the provisions for referring the matter to the court. Also, the
design requirements have not been met properly due to which additional costs might incur
in the future and involvement of dispute to the court. The representative of the employer
determines the fair administration concerning the contract which is considered crucial to
avoid disputes. The standard kind of construction contract provides the relevant treatment
for the purpose of defective work at the time of the construction project. In the JCT contract,

6. the instructions may be issued by the employer regarding the opening of the kind of
inspection (Agapiou, 2019). It is related to the work that has to be inspected and after the
tests have been made the work would be referred to as executed work.
The contract sum includes the opening up cost regarding the testing uncles the inspection
that is been made prescribes about the materials, work and goods. It is been made
according to the standards form of the contract and the costs is been maintained by the
contractor. The NEC guidance documentation is regarded as a form of guidance that can be
referred to as notes which have been developed as well as added within some time
(Ndekugri et al., 2022). All there-structuring regarding the documents which is based upon
the NEC4 contract was completed which involves the objectives related to an easy-to-follow
structure that can be said to be readily accessible. It is determined as practical advice that
can be provided which includes the checklists. A guide has been provided related to the
NEC4 contract that will provide step-by-step procedures that will help in managing the
contract for the purpose of delivering the objectives of the client.
The documentation is been required regarding the interim valuation as the administrator
issues the certificate. The payment is made after the certificate has been issued as it is
referred to as the evidence concerning the payment related to it. The NEC4 contract that has
been formed between the parties states the arising of the dispute between the parties.
When the dispute arises then the contract states about referring the matter for adjudication.
The dispute has arisen concerning the lead test results therefore it needs to be solved by the
court. Also, the matter of faulty workmanship can be referred to for adjudication and the
court has to solve the matter. The compensation to the parties who have suffered losses due
to no payment which is been made by the client.
Conclusion
The paper has recognized the provisions related to the dispute resolution that is occurred at
the time of the formation of the construction contract. It has determined several legislation
concerning the contract that involves the provision for solving the dispute that occurred
between them. It has accomplished the nature and purpose of the legislation in relation to
the construction contract. Several kinds of conflicts can arise during the NEC4 contract.
While the contract itself states the terms of the contract and provisions regarding solving
the dispute. The paper has recognized the office building project and determination of the
dispute that has arisen during the project. There has been accomplished several points
regarding the obligation at the time of dispute which is upon the client during the
completion of the period of interim valuation. It has determined several remedies which is
available to the person that has suffered losses from the non-payment during the initiation
of the contract. The paper has recognized the criteria for initiation of the adjudication to the
court during arising of the dispute. It has accomplished certain problems concerning the
case scenario that is based upon warehouse as well as offices project. The paper has
recognized the solutions that will minimize the problems in the case scenario along with it

7. the contract involves the documentation at the time of dealing with the issues. It has
accomplished the relevant procedures that have been determined and adopted regarding
such issues.
References
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