The listing provisions in the JCT standard building contract require the contractor to choose from a list of not less than three.

Unfortunately there is no provision in the contract for the architect to bring a specialist subcontractor on board at an early design stage.

Involvement with the subcontractor only takes effect after a subcontract has been entered into. It would be necessary for the employer to enter into some form of adhoc arrangement direct with the subcontractor if the architect wished to get him on board at an early design stage.

In the case of the naming provisions under the intermediate building contract, a named subcontractor may be named in one of two ways – either by the name appearing in the contract or being named by the contract administrator in relation to the expenditure of a provisional sum.

The employer is at risk in the event of the contractor not being able to enter into the subcontract or where the employment of the named subcontractor is terminated. In other respects the named subcontractor is in a similar position to a domestic subcontractor.

Roger Knowles, chairman, Knowles

Source

QS News