Job Book 9th Edition - Book - Page 259
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Stage 5 > Construction: Supplementary Material: 5/SM1
Supplementary Material
5/SM1: Dealing with Building Contract documents
(actions for the contract administrator)
Notifying all tenderers
A letter should be sent to the selected tenderer confirming the decision to accept
the tender. This may be subject to agreed modifications to the contracted works,
usually to fit within the cost plan. This letter might state that a contract will not
exist until the documents have been prepared and signed by the parties. If this
is so, it is important to make sure that the signing of the Building Contract takes
place before the date agreed for possession, to avoid possible allegations of
frustration.
Once the tender has been accepted, a list of compliant tender prices and tenderers
should be sent to all tenderers within a reasonable period of time.
The formalities of the Building Contract agreement should always be completed
before work starts on site. You are strongly advised that construction work should
not commence without a signed contract and that letters of intent can leave
consultants exposed to significant liabilities.
efer to the recent Technology and Construction Court decision in Ampleforth Abbey
R
Trust v Turner & Townsend Project Management Limited (2012), which acts as a
warning to contract administrators on the scope of their standard of care, and to
construction professionals in general of the risk of ‘unreasonable’ limitation of liability
clauses within their standard terms and conditions being held as unenforceable.
Under no circumstances should construction work be started before the
contractor has prepared a Health and Safety Plan which complies with the CDM
Regulations.
Completing the Building Contract documents
Both parties should enter into a contract on the basis of a complete set of
documents, each of which has been completed as necessary (see P/SM1 for a
list of contract documents).
The agreement between the employer and the contractor should be dated
and should reflect the correct titles and addresses of the parties. Normally the
addresses will be those to which notices, instructions, certificates, etc. are to
be sent. If either party wishes to have all contractual communications sent to a
different address, this should be recorded in the Building Contract documents.
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