Contract Management and Claims Services:

---

We are experienced in contract management from pre-mobilisation to hand-over.

The biggest risk to contractors is the cost of unforeseen delay in the project, which can arise from many factors including Employer action, contractor’s own delays and concurrent delay, extreme adverse weather, unforeseen issues such as adverse ground and soil conditions, variations / change orders / compensation events and stoppages causing disrupted working and loss of productivity, and complete “black swan” events such as Corvid-19.

It can be a very difficult, complex task to link cause of delay to financial / cost impacts and unless expert advice is taken early on, contractors will have their extension of time claims rejected, and Employers will award too much or too little time.

Almost invariably, the contract will require the contractor to give notice, often within a strict timeframe before any question of entitlement to payment for extended preliminaries and other costs arises. We will advise on notices, assist in drafting correspondence and investigate the root causes of delays both on the critical path and non-critical activities, and advise on recovery of cost or loss and expense as the contract permits. We will assist in examining the contractor’s costs and records, and those of subcontractors and suppliers.

The management of extension of time claims will eat into site management’s time as they endeavour to get the project back on track.

This is where Clause One Consulting’s specialist contract claims service comes in. We will analyse site and cost records, create a realistic impacted programme showing likely causes of delay, and with quantum colleagues, assess costs that should be recovered under the contract, both time-related (preliminaries, resource thickening, overtime, etc.) and other costs. We will draft correspondence and narratives and assist in negotiations to achieve a settlement.

It often occurs during complex projects that variations, changes and compensation events are negotiated and agreed in a new document. Clause One can assist with drafting this complex documentation to protect your key interests.

Sometimes, negotiations fail. This can be for many reasons, sometimes the other party simply is not interested, and has decided to starve their subcontractor of cash, or their QS asks endlessly for more and more documents. Sometimes, they may believe they are right, but on wrong information.

In this scenario, a formal claim and dispute may be unavoidable. Clause One Consulting will draft claims narratives and will assist in dispute resolution in accordance under the contract, including in mediation or statutory adjudication. We have 30 years’ experience in the construction and engineering industries, in a range of sectors, from specialist trade packages such as groundworks, to separate sectors such as house-building, rail, drilling and cable installation, HVAC, roads and EPC oil and gas.

We are experienced in all forms of upstream contracts, including concept, FEED, and EPC. Recent projects included contract review on behalf of a funding bank for the design, procurement and installation of 6 oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.