Will you tell us whether a clause we have signed is enforceable?
No: we mark any clause whose legal effect is in doubt for your solicitor, and set out what it could mean for you on this job.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
The answer
We do not call it valid or void. Post-Signing Contract Review flags the terms that may not work as written. One example is a payment term that the payment rules set by law may replace. Another is two documents that say different things about the same duty. Your solicitor then gets the clauses already found and marked. Meanwhile your team has the dates and duties the subcontract sets, in a contract cheatsheet for the site and a diary of every date.
Example
Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.
The facts
A drylining subcontractor's signed subcontract has a deduction clause and a payment schedule that disagree about when a deduction must be notified.
What happens
- We flag the conflict as a term that may not work as written, and mark it for the subcontractor's solicitor.
- We set out in plain words what each reading would mean for the next payment.
- We put the earlier of the two dates in the diary, so the team acts in time on either reading.
The outcome
The solicitor answers the legal question from the marked clauses. While it waits, the team has already acted in time on either reading.
To have the terms that may not work as written found and marked for your solicitor, see our Post-Signing Contract Review service.