All articles by Rudi Klein – Page 8
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Features
Love me tender
When competitive tenders are sought in the public sector, an implied contract exists whereby the prospective employer agrees to treat all tenderers fairly. Might this not also apply to the private sector?
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Comment
Why should banks be secure?
What can you do when the firm that's just taken £10k of goods from you goes belly-up? The answer is: not much – after the bank's receiver has made sure the bank gets its cash back. That may be about to change.
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Features
The trouble with set-off
Construction firms have shown little reticence in using set-off provisions in contracts as a way of promoting positive cash flow. Adjudicators, like the courts, should be on the lookout for this iniquitous practice.
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Comment
Clash points
Specialist contractors are in the same state of uncertainty as everyone else when it comes to post-Woolf litigation but given the abysmal record of the courts pre-Woolf, it couldn't get much worse.
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Features
Adjudication: a case for change
Failure to comply with procedural requirements could jeopardise the validity of adjudication, but a Court of Appeal judgment may force a look at the effect of the non-compliance rather than the letter of the law.
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Features
Clash points
Half right. In fact, natural justice does apply, albeit within the constraints of adjudication s statutory framework after all, a process that is obviously unfair will not attract many supporters.
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Features
Clash points
Clients should take a more holistic approach to dealing with subcontractors, making sure they get paid on time and that risk is fairly allocated, rather than leaving it up to the contractor.
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Features
The procurement jigsaw
The government has made giant strides in procurement by putting into practice concepts associated with Latham, Levene and Egan. But one or two pieces of the puzzle still have to be slotted into place.
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Features
Money back guarantee
Subcontractors have usually felt pretty powerless to get their hands on their retention money. But a recent case underlined that it is their money, and they have rights over it rights an adjudicator will enforce.
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Features
A slice of the action
Imagine if construction could develop a computer-generated picture of an evolving project, an auditable bank of information about its management. Disputes could be largely avoided. Stop imagining.
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Features
Clash points
The insolvency exemption is the most controversial element in the Construction Act. It is unjustifiable, unfair and too wide-ranging in its definition of insolvency. It must go.
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Features
Partnering comes unstuck
Not so long ago, partnering was being hailed as the answer to construction's contractual problems. But it is doomed to failure unless the industry and its clients take on board the practical philosophy it embodies.
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Features
Clash points 2
Not exactly. Contractors aren't always angels they are businesses like any other. However, the client can solve its own problems by choosing best practice procurement routes.
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Features
Keep it going
Sustainable construction is not to be dismissed as flavour of the month . It is the shape of things to come and, particularly in relation to energy consumption, is set to have a major impact on procurement practices.
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Comment
Clash points
Au contraire. Stakeholder accounts take a hatchet to the Construction Act's explicit payment rules, and its implicit intention of keeping the money flowing through the system.
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Features
Unknown territory
Nobody wants to make the arduous and risky journey to court, but only the intrepid few have explored the new adjudication short cut. Now it seems their experiences are about to be made into a reliable map.