I am a contracts engineer. The job is
falling badly behind programme, due to building delays, late information and
variations. It is obvious that I am going to over-run the end date by several
weeks. What should I do? What are my entitlements?
Dear Worried Engineer
The first action is to protect yourself from the risk of
damages. If the project handover is delayed and the builder considers you to
blame, he will set off from your account the costs of his site staff and
establishment, plus the liquidated damages he is likely to suffer from the
client. So a few weeks over-run can amount to a financial disaster.
Your protection must come from submitting prompt delay
notices as individual delays become apparent, recording the exact
circumstances, the date and area, the programme activity affected and the
estimated effect upon the completion date.
As and when you see the overall completion date being endangered, you
must notify in writing, requesting an extension of time, stating your reasons.
You must then update these requests as and when necessary. Be ready to chase the builder. Don’t be
fooled by vague promises. As and when you get a written extension of time, then
you are protected from damages.
If the reasons for delay are due to the builder or client,
you are usually entitled to claim prolongation costs. Such reasons include late
variations, additional workload, late information, delays by the end client or
his direct contractors, delays by the builder or his sub-contractors. These costs are called “loss and
expense”. It is essential that you
notify your claims promptly in writing.
Give the builder budget figures, then update as necessary. If you fail
to do this, you lose all entitlements.
Prolongation costs include site engineers, supervisors,
charge hands, welfare man, storekeeper, site offices, cabins, telephone, fax,
plant and tools. Also claimable is the
time of visiting head office people like contracts managers, surveyors,
planners. As regards head office overheads generally, the
simplest way is to add a percentage to the total claim. Even better is to make certain all head
office people book their time to individual contracts, and then “job cost”
their time on a weekly basis. This makes it easier to recover your entitlements.
Having submitted your claims, be a nuisance. Nice guys get
ignored.
John Russell
Construction Contracts & Training
Consultants (Established 1984)
Email :
swsubbie@globalnet.co.uk Website:
www.jrconsultant.co.uk