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How to Protect Yourself When the Client is Late providing Construction Information
As a construction contractor, you know how important it is to have all the necessary information to complete your work on time. Unfortunately, clients are often late in providing construction information.
Late provision of information can lead to the following problems:
- Delayed start and completion of works
- Increased costs
- Client deducting damages for late completion
It is essential to protect yourself and ensure that you are compensated when the client does not provide information by a certain date.
The primary reasons why clients are late with construction information
- Lack of organisation
- Unforeseen circumstances
- Changes in scope
- Limited resources
It is essential that you are protected when these situations arise. I always go through the following steps to protect clients.
Step 1: The first step is to make sure that the contract deals with this issue. The contract should state that the contractor is entitled to be compensated if the client is late issuing construction information. The contractor should have the opportunity to get an extension of time and recover costs.
Step 2: The next step is to list out what the client is responsible for. The client may be responsible for many items:
- Consent from a local authority
- Issue of construction drawings
- Bespoke materials required for the works
- Access to the site
Step 3: Once we have a clear understanding of what the client needs to provide, we can add these items into the contractor’s programme. This serves as a reminder to the client of what they need to do, reducing the chances of a problem in the first place.
Step 4: The contract and the programme now work together. The client is required to provide these items by the dates specified in the programme. This means that the contractor should be able to recover time and costs when the client is late. It is essential that the contractor follows the notice provisions in the contract. A contractor can lose entitlement if they are late issuing notices.
In conclusion, by following these steps, you can protect yourself when the client is late with construction information.
That’s all for today.
See you next week.
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