Construction law

A building project is a contract that has to survive weather, insolvency, design change and the arrival of people who were not at the table when it was signed. Almost every construction dispute is really an argument about one of two things: who was responsible for a delay, and who accepted the risk of a condition nobody surveyed. Both are decided by documents written long before the problem appeared.

Construction law governs how work is procured, performed, accepted and paid for, and the long tail of responsibility once a building is finished:

• the rules on the contract’s structure — lump sum, remeasurement — and on instructions, variations and work done without written authority;
• the rules on the programme, extensions of time and who bears the cost of delay;
• the rules on unforeseen ground and site conditions, and how that risk is allocated;
• the rules on interim payment, retention and suspending work when payment fails;
• the rules on completion, handover and the reservations recorded at acceptance;
• the rules on defects — hidden and apparent — and the periods during which they may be raised;
• the rules on the responsibility of architects, engineers and other advisers;
• the rules on subcontracting, and on the main contractor’s exposure for its chain;
• the rules on guarantees, insurance and the security that survives completion.

Our lawyers can support you in all these areas of law.