Ann Minogue Freelance
Building
Stories by this contributor.
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Should contracts have a clause explaining what 'force majeure' means?
23 March 2012
Force majeure has no definition in common law so is it time to introduce a clause into construction contracts that actually says what it means?
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Clients transferring risk: The bullies are back
10 September 2010
The abuses and macho posturing we got from clients’ advisers in the nineties have returned - but given their attitude to risk, aren’t they the real wimps?
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Bite the bullet or fire it?: Terminating a contract
14 November 2008
The only thing an employer can be certain of when it gets rid of a contractor is that it will be in for endless headaches and hassle. Here’s why…
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Project bank accounts: Private practices
2008 Issue 5
The project bank accounts proposed by the guide could work in the private sector – if they can be made effective
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Rudi’s on the wrong track
2007 Issue 39
Rudi Klein has been complaining about Network Rail’s new contracts. But Ann Minogue, who helped document the client’s procurement strategy, thinks he has missed the point
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Green for go
2007 Issue 21
A recent sustainability conference came up with some bright ideas for carbon-cutting products, projects and codes. But the time for talking is over. How do we take action?
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The troubles we’ve seen
2006 issue 01
If there’s one thing you can confidently predict about 2006 it’s that the rows that raged in 2005 will rage on. In case you needed reminding, here they are …
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It’s not their job
2005 issue 45
Clients are increasingly told that health and safety is their job, but why? Surely it’s illogical to make customers responsible for the industry they employ
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The fiddle of fitness
2005 issue 35
Whether you’re a building contractor or a pastry-making equipment supplier, the fitness-for-purpose debate rages on – and it isn’t getting any easier
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You know it makes sense
2005 issue 21
The British Property Federation has produced one short, simple and fair consultancy agreement for every profession. What do you think its reception will be?
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Fawlty law
2005 issue 12
The law of tort is a fundamental regulator of commercial relationships. Appropriately enough, a hotel in Torquay has revealed that it is also a bit of a farce
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Big deal
2005 issue 10
Is this so new? Construction managers have breached their contracts before, the only difference is that the dispute never got to court – which demonstrates one of CM’s many benefits
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Mind and will
2005 issue 08
In a landmark case, a council architect is on trial for manslaughter, after an outbreak of legionnaire’s disease killed seven people. The verdict will be pivotal …
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Closer
2005 issue 05
Following on from Patrick Holmes’ disturbing article last week, we examine the damaging effects of intimacy, negligence and confusion in commercial relationships
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Closer
2005 issue 05
Following on from Patrick Holmes’ disturbing article last week, Ann Minogue examines the damaging effects of intimacy, negligence and confusion in commercial relationships
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Seduced by simplicity
2004 issue 41
Last week Ashley Pigott used the Holyrood fiasco to take a pop at construction management – but easy targets don’t help us understand complex problems
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It was the torpedo, stupid
2004 issue 34
Everyone finds global claims confusing but a Scottish court armed only with common sense and a First World War U-boat has helped us all out
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Return to sender
2004 issue 25
Attention all clients! If an adviser turns itself into a limited liability partnership and writes to ask you to change your contracts accordingly, don't. This is why …
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Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
2004 issue 19
Ann Minogue welcomes us to the tedious, futile, wasteful, aggressive, pointless, hypocritical, irrelevant, bullying, baffling and pretentious world of her top 10 pet hates
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Diabolical liabilities
2004 issue 14
The Construction Industry Council is reponding to changes in the insurance market by insisting that the client takes on consultants' extra risk. This won't do
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Spec savers
2004 issue 04
If you're expecting someone to do a load of work for you on a speculative basis, you'd better keep reminding them that that's the deal – or you'll end up paying
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Grumpy? Van Morrison?
2003 issue 49
You may go to great lengths wording a contract to protect your interests but if you then go and wrongfully terminate it, you'll pay – even if you are a troubador
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I think we need to talk
2003 issue 45
Email and CAD have revolutionised information exchange, but unless everyone is using the same system, technology can create more problems than it solves
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Secret squirrels
2003 issue 37
Confidentiality is not the preserve of film stars and BBC journalists – obligations of confidence are intrinsic to your common or garden construction contracts
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Single cream
2003 issue 30
Does the JCT's major projects form offer the kind of single point responsibility that those who use design-and-build procurement require? Well, actually, yes
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A concrete example
2003 issue 25
The widespread amendment of design-and-build contracts heaps undefined risks on contractors and breeds disputes. But soon all cards will have to be on the table
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Sail or return
2003 issue 18
You buy a yacht for a cool quarter of a million, sail around in it for six months, decide you don't like it and ask for your money back. Fair dos – or taking the mick?
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Hands off
2003 issue 10
When contractors go bust, clients are often left with no way of recovering materials already paid for. Here's how to make sure that doesn't happen to you
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Pitch battles
2003 issue 05
With exorbitant interest clauses and dodgy transfer deals, football is not such a funny old game in the courts. For once, construction can just take a seat and spectate
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It's a dead cert
2002 issue 48
Non-standard collateral warranties are set to re-emerge – and as their interpretation is so unpredictable, we'll no doubt soon be begging to see the back of them
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Closing time
2002 issue 41
Clear contractual arrangements can save arguments over when practical completion has occurred. But be careful – an overly stingent definition can backfire
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Life should mean life
2002 issue 35
What's the point in paying for long-life products if you can't sue when they fail after the limitation period? Not much – but fortunately, a new law is on the way
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Incident at an injunction
2002 issue 29
Philandering footballers and fiery models are known for firing off injunctions, but they do occur in construction as well – unless the claimant applies too late
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Good practice vs Dracula
2002 issue 22
The construction industry regards fitness for purpose with horror – but, as a recent Court of Appeal case demonstrates, there's really nothing to be afraid of
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The reckoning
2002 issue 16
Is adjudication living up to our hopes? Hardly, when it has increased disputes, failed to deal satisfactorily with complex cases and become prey to bully-boy tactics
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Variation, and a theme
2002 issue 12
If you sign a long-term deal with a client, congratulations. And if you haven't ensured you can keep up your end, commiserations. You're at the mercy of fate …
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Another fine mess
2002 issue 04
How far does a contractor's liability go for any design work that it does? The answer is, as far as the parties let it – each standard form defines it differently
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Doing the splits
2001 issue 46
Allocating responsibility for damage can stretch one's intellect at the best of times. But when there are four parties and their insurers involved, it's a question of…
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The industry's black sheep
2001 issue 40
Recent cases suggest that consultants and their advisers are becoming too defensive. If this continues, there's a danger they'll lose the goodwill of the industry
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Break with past, Melinda
2001 issue 36
To argue against the third party rights act, as Melinda Parisotti did, is to argue in favour of a disaster. Not surprising, then, that the reasoning doesn't bear examination
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Emergency exit
2001 issue 30
Asking the engineer for an indemnity is not the best way out of the fix Carillion got itself into with Blyth & Blyth. But fear not – there are other ways of escaping
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The can-carriers
2001 issue 24
A spate of rulings on project managers have disproved the adage that they are mere paper pushers. Their role is wide-ranging – and so are their liabilities
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Alternative medicine
2001 issue 20
Ann Minogue - Some of the touted alternatives to retention are not all they're cracked up to be – but there are other ways to overcome the ills that they seek to remedy
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Knock-on costs
2001 issue 15
Ann Minogue - Demolition contractors can be liable for damage to adjoining buildings – even if they could not have foreseen its precise cause
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Watch what you say
2001 issue 10
Ann Minogue - Project managers should take care not to say something in post-tender negotiations that turns out to be untrue – it's a whole new area of potential liability
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Similar, but not the same
2001 issue 05
If an architect's drawings are used to obtain planning permission for a project and the architect, for whatever reason, then has no further involvement, can the project proceed without infringing its copyright?
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Clash points
2001 issue 01
The inexperienced employer does not always know what to look for when reviewing tender documents. Why can't the contractor help by providing objective advice at this stage, rather than complaining later?
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No contract? No problem
2000 issue 49
Whether or not a contract has been agreed may no longer be worth arguing about – the latest twist in Birse vs St David states that some terms in an unfinalised contract may still be binding on the parties.
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The chickens fight back
2000 issue 44
Tony Bingham believes that Discain won't make a huge difference to the adjudication system. Not so, says Ann Minogue: the case will spawn a host of further challenges to adjudicators' decisions.
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Top of the form
2000 Issue 39
A new standard form of subcontract for use on government work has been condemned by the Constructors Liaison Group as “utterly flawed” and “dreadful”. Do any of its attacks stand up to examination?
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Causing death and saving lives
2000 Issue 28
The government is concerned that a firm can be prosecuted and convicted for the death of a worker, and then get away with a paltry £1000 fine. So, it has come up with two initiatives. But only one will work …
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Clash points
2000 Issue 24
Experienced clients have been involving specialists early for over a decade. It’s the inexperienced customers that rely on the advice of consultants and might not be fully aware of the benefits.
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Defects myths exploded
2000 Issue 21
So you think you know about defects? Well, the truth behind these 10 commonly held misconceptions might prompt you to brush up on your knowledge about repairs liability – before you become a liability yourself.
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Dodging two-stage pitfalls
2000 Issue 17
Egan’s model of open-plan tendering can be undermined by contractors careful to cover their backs. But trouble can be avoided by getting into contracts early, or by building in some controlled competition.
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Clash points
2000 Issue 12
Pay-when-paid has been outlawed at the end of the subcontract chain, but the industry is still passing risk to firms in the middle. Why not have stand-alone contracts with each party accepting its share of liability?
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Conspiracy theory
2000 Issue 10
This is the story of how a consulting engineer and a developer misled a client over practical completion, the role a collateral warranty played and how more than £1m was spent in pursuit of less than £13 000 damages.
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Clash points
2000 Issue 07
Everyone thinks there's still a place for nomination, but clients are deterred from doing it because it shovels a ludicrous amount of risk on to them. Time for contractors to shoulder a little more of the burden?
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The battle of Brompton
2000 Issue 05
Contractor meets client, contractor sues client, client sues rest of the team: a typical story of multimillion-pound multiparty litigation – and how difficult it is to sort out. This is how one judge is going about it.
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Clash points
1999 Issue 50
The dome client came unstuck when it tried to enforce a contract clause that required a bond and guarantee from a supplier. But clients only use such clauses because firms are so bad at producing documents on time.
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The public sector's story
1999 Issue 46
After a difficult start, the public sector has a good record of complying with competition law. Cases like Harmon are exceptional, and, in any case, European law is about to change.
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Clash points
1999 Issue 43
Of course responsibility and power go together, but the situation is not as simple as Jennie thinks – for one thing, novation is worse for clients than contractors, but intimately linked to single-point responsibility.
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The third party way
1999 Issue 41
For all the predictable griping, and the tendency of the producers of standard forms to deny its application, the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Bill brings opportunities for all sectors of the industry.
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Clash points
1999 Issue 38
The Woolf reforms have introduced a revolutionary change in legal culture. Has the subcontracting industry woken up to this, and is it ready to change its ways to cope with the new rules?
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Clash points
1999 Issue 30
JCT98 is guilty of aiding and abetting inefficiency. Take its extensions of time clause – the list of relevant events includes items that clearly should be the responsibility of the contractor.
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The speed trap
1999 Issue 29
Clients often assume they can demand that contractors finish by Christmas, variations or no variations. In fact, they can’t, unless the contractor agrees – and then the bill may be bigger than they anticipated.
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Putting the record straight
1999 Issue 26
Ann Minogue recently criticised construction’s “Neanderthal” attitude to legal reform. She pointed to an editorial comment in a law letter that urged parties to exclude from industry contracts legislation protecting the rights of third parties. This is the editors’ response.
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A victim of its own success?
1999 Issue 25
Adjudication is establishing itself as an effective way to resolve disputes, which means that it can also be an effective way to bushwhack the opposition – and the legal restraints on this look rather flimsy.
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Clash points
1999 Issue 24
Not so. Subcontractors should fight their own corner against unfair contract terms and not leave it up to clients, most of whom are, in any case, ill-equipped to help them.
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Why can’t we help ourselves?
1999 Issue 21
The Rights of Third Parties Bill is working its way through parliament. If applied, it will be hugely helpful to construction. Unfortunately, the industry’s atavistic response has been to fight it tooth and nail.
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Clash points
1999 Issue 19
A recent report shows that clients are happier with the industry than they were in the mid-1990s. But this may merely reflects easier times, rather than better working practices.
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Don't ignore the formalities
1999 Issue 16
Failure to stick to the precise procedural requirements of termination clauses in commercial contracts can have dire legal consequences. What can you do to reduce the risk ?
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Don't back a two-horse race
1999 Issue 12
The public sector wants to defend itself against the preferred bidder on PFI projects, so it is proposing to play two bidders off against each other. This is not a good idea. But the public sector does have another remedy …
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Clash points 1
1999 Issue 10
If contractors can pass on their subcontractors' costs to the client, they probably will, won't they? Clients suspect this might be true, but fortunately Rudi can set their minds at rest …
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What do you do for a living?
1999 Issue 08
The role of project manager is vital in ensuring the client gets the building it bargained for. But there is a curious lack of agreement about what they are actually supposed to do, and how much risk they bear.
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Law inaction
1999 Issue 04
In the past a lot of disputes were allowed to grow because the parties – particularly the clients' advisers – were lazy. So, new adjudication should work because it brings time pressure to bear – shouldn't it?
