Construction defects and delays

A crack appears in a new floor, the roof lets water in after the first winter, or the handover date passes with the scaffolding still up. The instinct is to stop paying, call in another builder and settle the blame later. Each of those steps can weaken your position: evidence disappears once repairs begin, a withheld payment invites a counterclaim, and a contractor who was never given the chance to put things right may owe far less than the repair cost.

Defects and delays are rarely one party’s doing alone, and the answer usually lies in the contract, the site records and an expert’s view read together. Whether you are the owner, the contractor or a subcontractor caught in between, the matter turns on:

• the rules on recording a defect or a delay properly — written notice, a joint inspection, dated photographs — before anything is changed;
• the rules on the contractor’s right to put its own work right, and on bringing in someone else at its cost when it will not;
• the rules on preserving evidence and appointing an expert while the building is already in use or still under construction;
• the rules on sharing liability between several parties whose work met at the point of failure;
• the rules on concurrent delay, when owner and contractor each caused part of the lateness;
• the rules on what an owner may recover for late delivery — lost rent, extra financing, temporary premises — and on how it must be proved;
• the rules on a contractor’s claim for disruption and prolonged site costs when the owner caused the hold-up;
• the rules on which insurance policies respond to the damage, and on how and when an insurer must be told;
• the rules on settling the matter — confidential offers, partial agreements, and what a signed settlement closes for good.

Our lawyers can support you with this.