What is a Performance Bond, its purpose and implications?

Bonds are provided as useful means of creating financial security for the Employer for the Contractor’s failure to perform his contractual obligations. Generally, a bond is an arrangement under which the performance of one party (A) to another party (B) is backed up by a third party (C). What happens is that C promises to […]

Should Additional Preliminaries be evaluated on recurring costs basis or actual costs incurred?

Preliminaries is that part of the Bills of Quantities which describes the project and contract particulars, lists the contractor’s general obligations, states works, goods, materials by others, parties obligations and liabilities, general facilities, etc. Preliminaries, which form part of the Bills of Quantities is normally priced by the Contractor separately from the trade or elemental […]

Must the Contractor Notify the Employer/SO of its Loss and/or Expense Claim

Having discussed what is Loss and/or Expense in the last article, we now will look at the requirement of notice in relation to claiming for Loss and/or Expense. The standard forms of contract in Malaysia require that written notifications are provided for loss and/or expense claims. However due to poor understanding of the requirement of […]

What is Loss and/or Expense?

There are many misconceptions about what is Loss and / or Expense under construction contracts. These misconceptions arise mainly due to lack of understanding or misunderstanding that the various parties to the construction contracts, namely the Contractor, the Employer / Client and the Contract Administrator / Supervision Officer (SO) have on this topic, which has […]

Should a Sub-contractor Sign a Sub-contract with<br>Pay-When-Paid Clause?

It is common in the Malaysian construction industry that many Contractors sub-let their works to their Sub-contractors on pay-when-paid/pay-if-paid basis. That is to say, unless the contractor receives payment from the Employer or client, the Sub-contractor/s will not receive theirs, correspondingly. Often, the Sub-contractors are burdened and suffer financially as a consequence of such practices, […]

Can Loss and/or Expense Form Part of a Variation<br>Item?

This question is as perennial as the evergreens and is of interest especially to Contractors but equally important to the Architect / Engineer / Supervision Offer as they are the party that will assess a claim for loss and / or expense. For us to provide an answer to whether loss and / or expense […]

What is Set-off under Construction Contracts?

It is important to understand the mechanism of set-off under construction contracts in relation to issues of payment due to the Contractor. Set-off is a wide and complex topic, but in this article, the Writer will give an overview discussion on this aspect affecting payments under construction contracts. Set-off is normally used by the Employer […]

When Must Retention Sum be Released and<br>Paid?

Most, if not all, construction contracts used around the world usually have provisions for the retention of certain amount of monies due to the Contractor by the Employer. This retention sum is normally retained by the Employer throughout the contract period, and usually beyond the construction period up to the expiry of defects liability period. […]

Should Retention Sum be Placed under a<br>Separate Bank Account?

Most standard forms of construction / building contract have a provision for the retention of a certain percentage of the amount due to the Contractor. The main purpose of retention monies is to serve as a protection mechanism for the Employer from the Contractor’s failure or default in his performance under the contract e.g. rectification […]