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If there’s a single most important component of Construction projects, which is indispensable, it is the contract. A contract serves as a binding document between multiple parties involved in the construction project.
If the terms of the contract are well-defined and have no gaps in the definition of responsibilities, the project will sail on with success. But, there will be times when the contractual terms and definitions fail to address a situation during the project’s construction duration. In such times, the aggrieved party comes up with claims. These claims are called contractual claims.
This article aims to provide you with guidelines to manage the contractual claims in your construction project.
Five guidelines to effectively manage contractual claims
Claims in conduction projects are an inevitable occurrence. While these instances cannot be completely avoided, you can always take measures to reduce their probability. Since they may arise anyway, you need to be prepared to manage them in due time and take mitigation actions when needed.
Some guidelines which expert suggest to effectively manage the contractual claims which often arise in construction projects are as follows:
Record keeping
One of the key ways to manage the contractual claims is to keep a record of almost everything that is possible to document. The daily progress reports, video files, photographs, meeting minutes, drawings, and transmittals and memos will serve as evidence in many instances.
You should, thus, keep them, maintained, and well-organized so as to facilitate the expert witness who is analyzing the situation when a problem arises. In this way, you will be able to support the completion of the contract and administration related tasks.
Knowledge of contract
Very often, contractors neglect the importance of possessing a thorough knowledge of the contract and the final terms defined there. If you are the contractor, you need to read and understand all the terms which define the scope and specifics of the construction project. You need to know who is responsible for what when a claim or a conflict-like situation arises.
Without the knowledge of the contract, the contractor cannot ensure the adherence of the workers to the contract. Strict compliance with the contract will help in avoiding the extension of time requests, and you will be able to fulfill the requirements of the variation clause and the claiming clause.
Planning and scheduling
When you plan things well, there’s very little left for anticipation.For any construction project management, planning and scheduling serve as the backbone. If you don’t plan your project properly, you will have difficulty in ensuring the availability of adequate resources. You need to ensure that you allocate adequate time, besides physical resources for each activity and task.
For this purpose, you need to invest time and effort in the planning and scheduling phase of your project. With the progress in the construction process, the critical paths change. Dealing with changes is easier if you have consultants like delay and quantum expert in the loop for periodical updates.
Preservation of rights
Every party signatory to the contract has its own importance for your project. So before a party comes with a claim, you need to have a way to preserve their right to a claim. For this, you have to draft a written notice of a potential occurrence of a claim in the contract duration.
There are many instances that require you to preserve the right to a claim. These may include any work stop order, equipment related matters, owner supply materials, a contradiction in clauses of the contract, or instructions as to the way to perform a certain task.
Proactive actions
It is important that the attitude of the contractor is full of consciousness towards claim situations. Make sure that you are proactive in matters related to the claim so that you are able to support the claim management process effectively. But what does it mean by being proactive? It means that you need to exercise quick responses when clients come up with a complaint. It also means that you have to request for written confirmations in case of instruction and verbal conversations of importance
Make sure you put an extension of time requests when the delays are excusable, notwithstanding the acquisition of the service of a quantum expert to quantify the escalation of costs as the result of delays. Seek clarifications on the matters of disagreements, and change orders before you carry on with the next tasks of the project.
Managing contractual claims is essential
When you cannot completely avoid a difficult situation, your next point of action is to mitigate the negative influence. With the help of quantum analysts and delay claim consultants Dubai, you can drag your project to successful completion with little to no escalation of costs and extension of time.
Just make sure you follow the guidelines provided by the experts to manage the contractual claims
