Fluctuations Provisions: Get It Right Or Risk Adjudicators Getting It Wrong

Amey Wye Valley Ltd v County of Hereford District Council.

This adjudication enforcement case illustrates the importance of clarity and ease-of-use when using inflation clauses in your contract. It also demonstrates that "an error in the arithmetic by an adjudicator does not render the adjudicator's decision unenforceable".Fluctuations and inflation provisions have not been regularly used in private sector building contracts for many years but in the post-Brexit/Trump era uncertainty in the financial markets may lead to a rise in use of such provisions. Users of such clauses may be rather rusty and so it will be even more important to ensure that such provisions are workable in practice.