Its Snow Joke! How To Avoid Being Blamed For Delays Caused By Bad Weather
The bad weather has affected everyone up and down the UK in some way, and the construction industry is no exception. Whether people haven’t been able to get to work or a full day’s work has been completely snowed off, someone will be out to dish the blame, so make sure you aren’t first in line with these streetwise tips:
- Understand your programme obligations under the contract, in particular the start date, duration and completion date.
- If you cannot proceed with your work due to the bad weather, record the fact with an email, letter or fax, doing nothing is fatal.
- Take dated photographs of anything that is delaying your progress. It isn’t enough that the snow is all over the news, you need solid proof of how it affects YOUR job!
- If it becomes evident that you will not complete by the completion date due to the delays, you must be able to demonstrate it’s not your fault and you should apply immediately for an extension of time.
- Understand the requirements for submitting applications for extensions of time, as in some circumstances you may lose your entitlement with a late application.
Secure Extensions of Time To Avoid Incurring Costs
The amount of time to be added to the contract period for delaying events should be calculated logically and methodically by the Contractor, and in turn if those events have delayed the Contractor, they should be dealt with upstream by the Contract Administrator, or Architect.
All of this should be done impartially and objectively.
In other words, if it comes to a dispute as to whether a fair and reasonable extension of time has been granted and the Contractor (and/or the Contract Administrator or Architect) has determined the period of that extension of time instinctively, intuitively, or under the instructions of one of the parties, that decision is likely to be overturned.
Urgent Sub-Contract Delay and Disruption Problem?
If all this seems somewhat confusing, then don’t be put off. There is a lot of nonsense talked about extensions of time and delay analysis. So, our best advice is to give us a call and talk it over with us.
Our initial advice is free! Call us now on 01773 712116.
You will be pleased to know that you can also find a wealth of information on Streetwisesubbie.com about avoiding delay and disruption problems.
Please click here to go to the Contractual section.
If you already have a problem with a Contractor or Client regarding delay and disruption and you need help to find a solution please check out the Dispute Resolution Section for information that may help you to resolve the situation.
Please click here to go to the Dispute Resolution section.
If you simply haven’t got time to look or have any other problem whatsoever and you can’t find what you are looking for, then why not use the Ask Streetwise or StreetwiseConfidential feature on this site to ask our Virtual Team of experts for help on delay and disruption?
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