Strategic Contractual Advice
Whether you are trying to avoid or resolve a construction dispute, Edge Consult will provide you with the strategic contractual advice necessary to protect and enhance your position. Our strategic advice will cover not just an understanding of the legal aspects but also how the building contract interacts with the key issues of time and money.
The sooner Edge Consult are engaged, the greater the benefit to you. Early strategic advice will typically provide you with far better the outcomes. A stitch in time can often save you much more than nine.
At Edge Consult, the Partners come from a wide range of engineering and construction backgrounds. This enables the Partners to provide the in depth knowledge and practical experience necessary to ensure you achieve the best possible result. This background enables us to advise you using our specialist areas of expertise including building contracts, planning/programming, delay analysis, quantification and valuation. Combining these core skills will provide you with a one-stop shop for strategic contractual advice.
So what does this mean in practise? Each strategy will be customised to your particular situation and desired outcome, which may vary depending on your connection with the construction process. Our ‘About You’ section of this website lists our typical client types and how we can best help you. However, all clients will have one thing in common, the need for a strategy to get you from where you are now to the place where you want to be. Once a strategy is in place, we can then advise and support you as necessary to achieve your optimum outcome.
The starting point of any strategy is likely to be the procedures, obligations and risks contained in your building contract. Once we have established the terms and conditions that will apply to your project, we will be able to work with you to establish a strategy that targets your desired outcomes to the extent it is contractually enforceable. This initial stage is essential to prevent key risks and obligations being missed or misunderstood as the contract will normally be the foundations upon which the rest of the strategy will be built.
Where your project has already commenced, the strategy will be affected by the
available records, progress of the works, the degree of urgency and the best realistic outcomes that can be achieved. This strategy may involve Edge Consult in identifying and collating key documentation, drafting essential notices, certificates or correspondence, developing as-built programmes, analysing causes of delays, quantification of payments due and the like.
Clearly, the earlier Edge Consult are involved, the greater influence we can have over the events that may otherwise adversely impact your position. However, where Edge Consult have not been involved at an early stage, it may be that a mitigation strategy may be the best way forward. Our strategic advice will then centre around the best ways to limit your exposure or maximise your recovery as afar as possible in the circumstances.
As an important part of our strategic contractual advice, we regularly draft contractual letters for our clients to safeguard and improve their position. This helps to ensure that key matters are contemporaneously recorded, contractual obligations such as notifications are correctly discharged and robust build programmes are in place. A letter or notice that may take just an hour to draft may ultimately save many days or weeks and considerable costs later on due to a dispute arising due to the lack of, or a poorly drafted, letter or notice.
Contract Reviews
Edge Consult regularly audit and review main contracts, sub-contracts, supply agreements and consultant appointments. These reviews will provide practical
assessments of the likely risks you may incur, often using RAG rating (Red/Amber/Green) against matters of concern. To this end, we can provide an explanation of the main risks, both in terms of probability and liability. This will enable you to understand and make informed decisions when negotiating and/or entering into a building contract.
As part of any strategy, Edge Consult can assist you in contractual negotiations to limit your exposure to risks that may otherwise arise. Our objective is to minimise the chances of you becoming disadvantaged or ending up in a dispute. However, where a dispute becomes unavoidable, our clients will gain from our early strategic involvement, in-depth practical construction and contractual knowledge, and extensive adjudication expertise, having been involved with hundreds of adjudications.
Contract Administration
We often take on the role of Employer’s Agent or Contract Administrator on construction projects, often where extensive time and cost problems have already arisen or where relationships have broken down. In this role, we can ensure that our proactive mindset and practical experience, combined with our contractual and conflict avoidance expertise, protects and enhances our clients’ position. If a construction project appears to be heading towards a dispute, our involvement may also have the advantage of either preventing the dispute from escalating or enable us to prepare for any potential adjudication or other proceedings.
Where we act as the Contract Administrator, we will utilise our expertise and experience in construction contractual advice, planning and delay analysis, along with robust valuation and cost control methods. This will help to mitigate against potential disputes arising and minimise the need of our dispute resolution services. However, should a dispute still arise, we will have all necessary records and project knowledge to successfully deal with such a dispute.
Expert Witness and Litigation Support
Edge Consult are often appointed to provide Expert Witness Statements or litigation support on construction contract administration matters, such as the Employer’s Agent’s role and duties. The Partners’ extensive experience in this area, as both construction professionals and dispute resolution consultants, will provide you with the necessary independent expertise.
Other Services We Offer:
Construction Dispute Resolution ~ Adjudication ~ Arbitration ~ Litigation Support ~ Mediation ~ Negotiation ~
Claims ~ Commercial Support ~ Contract Advice ~ Project Planning & Delay Analysis ~
Project Management Support ~ Project Monitoring, Reviews & Audits ~ Insolvency Support
Privacy Policy Tel: 01473 834 570 Email: info@edgeconsult.co.uk
Construction Dispute Resolution ~ Adjudication ~ Arbitration ~ Litigation Support ~
Mediation ~ Negotiation ~ Claims ~ Commercial Support ~ Contract Advice ~
Project Planning & Delay Analysis ~ Project Management Support ~
Project Monitoring, Reviews & Audits ~ Insolvency Support
Privacy Policy Tel: 01473 834 570 Email: info@edgeconsult.co.uk
Construction Dispute Resolution ~ Adjudication ~
Arbitration ~ Litigation Support ~ Mediation ~
Negotiation ~ Claims ~ Commercial Support ~
Contract Advice ~
Project Planning & Delay Analysis ~
Project Management Support ~
Project Monitoring, Reviews & Audits ~
Insolvency Support
Privacy Policy Tel: 01473 834 570
Email: info@edgeconsult.co.uk