Creative Contract Solutions

In today's construction industry understanding your contractual obligations is paramount to successfully remaining in the industry and more importantly remaining profitable. Here at CCS, our team of professional provides contractors with ongoing support to understand their contractual obligations and assist in monitoring and managing their contracts in line with the agreed terms and conditions.

Your contract is a binding agreement between you and the client, normally in the form of a written document and provides a variety of information including a start and completion date, details about progress payments and specifications, time bars regarding when to submit payment claims and so on. The contract provides all the details about the how, when, and where of the project. As a contract you must have an understanding of the various clauses contained in your contract. Particularly clauses that address the following;

Scope of Work - The most important part of all contracts.  The majority of claims and disputes that occur on a construction project arise when the scope of works has been poorly written.  

Schedule - Many contractors either don’t have the time or expertise to develop a schedule of works or more importantly coordinate their works with the builder’s schedule or other trades.  

Terms of Payment - All States and Territories have some form of security of payments legislation, this ensures that the contractors are able to maintain a positive cash flow. It is important to understand the terms and conditions of your contract so you are not left in a position of having suppliers withdrawing supply for non payment of accounts.  

Insurance - Insurance is an extremely important asset of a contractor’s company and something you must have and understand. 

Variations - Variations are either instructions given verbally or in writing to change something however, depending of the nature of the variation it can be very costly, it is important to understand what your contract states about variations and how they are claimed. 

Disputes - Generally disputes between the contractor and builder are over claims for variations or the scope of works, all contractors need to understand these important parts to their contracts. 

Damages - As a general rule most construction contracts have a liquidated damages clause. Failure to understand the context of L&Ds clauses in construction contracts has the potential to bankrupt a contractor.   

Collateral Warranty - Many contracts contain clauses for collateral warranties, these have significant legal ramifications between manufactures, wholesalers, retailers and the contractor.

Termination and Suspension - Contracts may contain Termination and Suspension clauses which if exercised by the builder can have a significant financial impact on contractors, particularly when the contractor has equipment on hire, not to mention the labour costs. It is important to understand these clauses and what mechanisms are in place to claim for any termination or suspension of works. 

Litigious Society

As a general rule, when disputes arise between parties in a construction contract, depending on the state, the first port of call is adjudicaiton. Many contractors end up losing money on their contracts because of one simple fact, they normally do not have the document and contract management systems in place to successfully defend or submit an application for adjudication.

Protect yourself and your business

• Protect your income by allowing CCS to manage your contracts which will free you up to concentrate on the job at hand.
• Creative Contract Solutions will help protect your family and assets by providing a fully integrated project and contract management system.