P>JCT issued Revision 2 of the Standard Building Contract, the Design and Build Contract and the Minor Works contracts in May. Main changes include:
- Interim payments after practical completion – rather than payments being made as and when further amounts are due, the new provision requires this at 2 monthly intervals.
- Where the Employer fails to issue a Certificate or issues it late, an entitlement for the Contractor to be paid interest from what would have been the final date for payment if a Certificate had been issued on time.
- New clause – "Retention Bond" which applies if a bond is being provided in lieu of retention being deducted and text for Form of Retention Bond added.
- Revisals to notice provisions and encouragement to parties to agree a communications protocol at the outset.
- Revisals to termination provisions so that an increased notice period is required before terminating.
- New Recitals Sixth and Seventh which refer to the contract being supplemented by a Framework Agreement and Supplemental Provisions.
- An obligation on parties to "give serious consideration" to any request to refer disputes to mediation.
- Optional provisions to adopt the principles of the Office of Government Commerce's "Achieving Excellence in Construction" related to:
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- Acceleration Quotation to be submitted by the Contractor where the Employer wants to investigate the possibility of achieving practical completion early.
- Collaborative working.
- Obligations to endeavour to establish and maintain a culture and working environment in which health and safety is of paramount concern to all involved with the project and obligations to comply with codes of practice, provide training, provide access to advice and ensure consultation with personnel.
- Contractor is encouraged to propose changes to designs or specifications which may benefit the Employer in terms of cost of works or life cycle cost.
- Contractor is encouraged to suggest economically viable amendments to the works which may result in an improvement in environmental performance.
- Monitoring of contractor's performance against KPI's stated in the contract.
- Provision for meetings between senior executives to negotiate in respect of any disputes.
New "Revision 2009" Guides have also been published which include a list of the Revision 2 changes and a User Checklist containing a checklist of the key information required to complete the Articles of Agreement.
Disclaimer
The material contained in this article is of the nature of general comment only and does not give advice on any particular matter. Recipients should not act on the basis of the information in this e-update without taking appropriate professional advice upon their own particular circumstances.
