We have been involved with claims which originated in the works not being ready on the start date.

What would you do?

Try & be helpful & work through the situation or issue a notice to the main contractor?

We have seen both, one works out well the other not so.

If you try & be helpful & haven’t issued a notice:

• if you incur additional cost you may not be able to recover it,
• if you finish late you will be liable;
• the main contractor doesn’t have the information necessary for him to reprogramme/mitigate or issue notices to offending parties.

By taking this course of action you’ve actually increased risk for all parties.

If you issue a notice, then you’re:

• Protecting yourself – you may finish late, have to employ more labour or work longer hours to finish. This costs time & money.
• Giving the main contractor the opportunity to mitigate any delay/increased cost
• Enabling notices to be issued to the parties who have caused the situation.

To avoid shocks be proactive & collaborative visit site periodically prior to your commencement to ensure that the works will be ready for you & talk to the main contractor. By taking this course of action you’ve decreased risk for all parties. If something isn’t right notify, this is good contract administration