In the last few years, many cases have come before the courts relating to so-called “smash and grab” adjudications, which are founded on the argument that the paying party has failed to serve the necessary payment or pay less notice, […]

A contracting party commits a repudiatory breach of contract when it commits a breach so serious that the innocent party is deprived of substantially all the benefit of the contract. This allows the innocent party to accept the repudiatory breach, […]

Design and build contracts often impose a number of different obligations on contractors with regard to the quality of their works. When there are defects, it can be difficult to know how a series of separate obligations should be interpreted; […]

It is common for employers to include clauses in building contracts to the effect that the contractor is not entitled to an extension of time where there is concurrent delay. Until recently, it was not known whether such clauses are […]

NEC3 contracts, with their emphasis on proactive contract management, require compensation events to be valued using forecasts of the cost of the additional work. However, it is often the case that the compensation event procedure is not operated properly and […]

It is typical for businesses to include clauses in their standard terms and conditions which limit and/or exclude their liability as far as possible. However, the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 (“UCTA”) imposes restrictions on what can and cannot be […]

The recent case of Kersfield Developments (Bridge Road) Ltd v Bray and Slaughter Ltd (2017) is one of the latest in a long line of disputes about payment applications becoming due automatically in cases where the paying party has failed […]

The NEC publishers have just announced the publication of the NEC4 suite of contracts in June 2017. NEC have described the new NEC4 suite as building upon the content of NEC3 in a way which can be described as “evolution […]

It is common practice in construction and engineering contracts for contracting parties to seek to limit their contractual liability. The recent case of McGee Group Limited v Galliford Try Building Limited concerned a main contractor’s attempt to challenge the scope […]

There has recently been a wave of disputes between contracting parties about failures to issue payment notices and pay less notices. Paying parties will by now be well aware that failure to serve the correct notices on time can be […]