Laying The Foundations

When faced with an imminent adjudication we tend to pick up the contract terms and often wish we had put more thought into clauses which are pivotal in the adjudication process. There are some key clauses to include in your contract which will determine both the type of adjudication and tactical advantages.

The first clause to consider is the payment clause. If you are a subcontractor or contractor and you want to bring an adjudication based on the simple principle that because no withholding notice was issued, the employer must pay the amount certified, there are some key amendments which must be made to the standard forms to achieve this. For example the JCT must be amended to deal with the situation where no certificate of payment or payment notice is issued, otherwise the employer will be in a better position than if they issues no payment notice at all! If you are an employer and you want to avoid being caught by the technical oversight of failing to issue a