We have already signed. Is it too late for a contract review?
No: the terms cannot be renegotiated now, but what they cost you on this job is still open, and Post-Signing Contract Review deals with that.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
The answer
We read what you signed, with every amendment and every document it pulls in. We set out in plain words what it commits you to. That covers the payment and notice dates, and the time bars that can cost you a claim. It covers what can be deducted from you and how, when your retention comes back, the delay damages and what can end the subcontract. We flag the terms that may not work as written, with their legal effect marked for your solicitor. If a notice period or time bar is already running, we raise it with you the day we find it. After one call with whoever runs the job, we write down what your team must do. You get a contract cheatsheet for the site and a diary of every date the subcontract sets. The review takes 5 working days. The fee is fixed, agreed in writing once we have seen the signed subcontract and the documents it pulls in. We walk you through the review when it lands. Send the subcontract as signed, the schedule of amendments, the documents it pulls in, your quote, and the emails and letters about the terms. Include any notice already given or received.
Example
Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.
The facts
A steel frame subcontractor is 3 months into a signed £1.1m subcontract. Its main contractor rejects a claim under a time bar in the amendments.
What happens
- The subcontractor sends the signed subcontract, the amendments, the main contract terms passed down, its quote and the letters and emails, including the rejected notice.
- We find 11 notice obligations, 4 of them time bars. A variation notice is already running, and we raise it with the subcontractor that day.
- After one call with the site manager and the commercial manager, we write the cheatsheet and the diary around the way the team works.
The outcome
The subcontract is unchanged, but the team knows every date it sets. The rejected claim goes to the subcontractor's solicitor with the clause already marked.
To have what you signed set out, with a cheatsheet and a diary for your team, see our Post-Signing Contract Review service.