All articles by Rudi Klein – Page 3
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CommentEarly payment schemes: The industry disease
Construction firms claim their early payment schemes give them flexibility, but critics say they are unfair to subcontractors and are killing growth. So who’s right?
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CommentConstruction 2025: Making it happen
The government’s Construction 2025 strategy could revolutionise our industry. But those of us who remember the Egan report will know how easy it is to let a chance for change slip away
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CommentProject bank accounts: What's not to like?
Project bank accounts provide security of payment to contractors, reduce supply chain risk and even save the client money. They just need to be set up properly
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CommentRetention: DIY for law makers
Patton Group is just the latest contractor to collapse while owing millions of pounds in retentions. How hard could it possibly be for our MPs to build a ring-fence for these funds?
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CommentInsolvency protection: Reform or bust
With construction companies dropping like flies, what lessons can the UK learn from an Australian inquiry into insolvency protection?
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CommentProject bank accounts: Answering some myths
With the use of project bank accounts on the increase, it’s time to knock some misconceptions on the head
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CommentThe impact of the Construction Act six months on
The amended Construction Act has been in effect for over six months. What impact has it had on contracts and what redress does it offer if things go wrong?
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CommentBIM and legal issues: Model behaviour
BIM could throw up all kinds of legal issues around liability when a project goes wrong. A clear implementation plan is needed from the outset
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CommentProtection against insolvency: Cash back
Construction has a poor reputation when it comes to protecting itself against insolvency risk. So here are some tips on how to stay on top of cashflow
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CommentAgreeing costs in adjudication: This one's on me
The new section 108A in the Construction Act allows parties to agree their costs in adjudication - surely this is more worrying than the anti-Tolent amendment?
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CommentGet your excess clauses out
Though the customer may not always be right, it can too often be blamed for waste. In fact, it’s frequently a contractor’s excess clauses that cost the client cash
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CommentHow to stay out of hell
If we treated design as a risk management issue, we’d probably save ourselves vast amounts of time and money sorting out the mess at the construction phase
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CommentThe insolvency exception to the pay-when-paid ban
The Court of Appeal ruling in Hare vs Shepherd gives out-of-pocket subcontractors a chance to challenge the insolvency exception to the pay-when-paid ban
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CommentYou’ve been warned: the dangers of advising traditional procurement
Traditional procurement methods are so needlessly wasteful that a consultant or solicitor who advises a client to adopt them may be guilty of negligence
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CommentThe z factor
What’s the point of using a standard contract if you’re going to add so many extra clauses that you’re essentially creating a bespoke form? Take Z clauses in NEC3 for example …
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CommentScheming minds
The government has released a consultation on the Scheme for Construction Contracts that proposes big changes in the industry’s rules. Here’s what I think of them …
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CommentSome finishing touches
The Scottish government has ruled that all firms on public sector projects must be paid within 30 days. This is a splendid idea, but a few tweaks are needed to make it work
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CommentInformation overload: The bumf tax
Tenderers are forced to wade through a shedload of information for the odd relevant detail, costing them a fortune. A few trips to the county court might put an end to the practice
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Law of limitation: And your time starts … now!
New legislation is on the way (at last) to reform the law of limitation of actions. But should it be a single limitation period and if so for how long: three, six or 10 years?
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CommentOFT special: Our game
One strange feature of the we play it is that clients pay £10bn a year to cut costs – and encourage incompetent contractors to muck up their schemes. Time to change the rules