Opinion – Page 612
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Comment
Pay or delay
The claimant was a builder who was seeking to recover the balance of the price for refurbishment and alteration work to Mr and Mrs Noble's home. Work commenced on site in November 2000, but the contractor suspended its work in October 2001 because of the defendant's non-payment of invoices at ...
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Miliband's terms
Education minister David Miliband describes his mission to bring every secondary school in Britain up to scratch as "provocative" and "challenging". So it will be – and not just for educationalists and local authorities, but for their suppliers in construction, too. On the face of it, Miliband's timing couldn't be ...
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Poking the paymaster
Without fear or favour, blind to all blandishments and valient for truth, an adjudicator must severely upset a party they're relying on for their daily bread. Hmmmm
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I'm talking serious money
Slow payment is a bad habit that the industy has got used to. It's just possible, you know, that by speeding it up we could solve quite a few other bugbears
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Comment
Eleven days lost
Here's a strange case where a fight over the meaning of a small part of the Construction Act decided which party took a big hit. This is what happened
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Comment
So, Mr Bond...
Escaping from an on-demand performance bond can be extremely tricky – and a recent case gives little comfort to those hoping the courts will rescue them
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Comment
This is a hold-up
Making a claim for losses caused by disruption can be tricky if you can't prove how much the disruption cost you. So how do you go about doing that?
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Comment
Hope for the no-hopers
The appellant, Chan U Seek, had brought a claim for payment of commission in respect of two contracts entered into by the defendant in 1995 and 1996 with the Indonesian Ministry of Defence. The deputy master had struck out and dismissed the claim under CPR 3.4(2) ...
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CommentBlow your rights
Why try to compare litigation with mediation when they do different things? We have mediation because we can't afford to find out what the truth is
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Not you again
One adjudicator tackling several related disputes seems a good way to cut out duplicated effort. But the parties must agree to it – or the adjudicator will get it from all sides
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Comment
Drawing to a close
Architectural drawings were once signature pieces that told us a lot about those who did them. Now the RIBA has a great scheme to save them from extinction
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Comment
Sail or return
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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Comment
… and carrots for all
Standard contracts have their limitations for public–private deals. To stay sane until signing day, try to draw up a timetable that incentivises all parties
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Comment
Cheap and far from cheerful
I am moved to comment on Building's news story about Romanian workers to be given work permits for the UK (21 March, page 11) and the article on foreign staff working on a London site (17 April, page 36).
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Comment
You name it, there's a regulation
I find myself in the unusual and confusing state of being in agreement with an architect and a solicitor at the same time: Barry Munday and John Redmond (11 April, pages 39 and 53).
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Dawn of the übermanager
Regarding your "Go-faster bunnies" article on 25 April (pages 50-52), it was heartening to hear people in the industry talking about the benefits that education brings.
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Comment
What you think of the RICS fee increase
Bye-bye little guy I read with interest that the RICS' forum group had written to its president, Peter Fall, to oppose the ridiculous increase in fees. Fall says in his – very poor – attempt to win support for the rise that the RICS' membership has increased 30% over the ...
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Comment
CABE on the threshold
One of the more remarkable British success stories since the millennium has been the rise of CABE, whose leading lights feature on this week's cover.