Pre-contract dispute avoidance steps
| Poor contract understanding | Over expectations of contractor |
| Be clear about the allocation of risks | To hold expectation management meetings |
| Tenderer to identify its portion of risk | Contractors should inform about the alternative products at early stage |
| Educate the Principal about the construction process | Get clear about the scope that Contractor quotes |
| Be clear about responsibilities | Tenderer should not overly expect on the Principal’s knowledge on the project |
| Define and use a standard method of measurement | |
| Detailed and accurate design documentation | |
| Draft the contract in clear and simple language | |
| Poor contract management and practices | Over expectations of principal |
| Involvement of Competent people to understand the contract administration well | Be clear on what Contractor should design and what documentations should provide |
| Contractor should keep in mind to inform Principal and submit any claims in a timely manner | Agreement on quality and standard criteria beforehand |
| Setting out reporting requirements in the Contract | Engage consultants for design aspects rather than contractors as much as possible |
| Training and learning from past experiences | Understand where Principal’s design risk finishes and where Contractor’s risk starts |
| Tenders to establish training and learning opportunities | |
| Poor contract formation | |
| Document the scope clearly | |
| Develop the design into a greater extent during pre-contract stage | |
| Selecting competent Principal’s representatives | |
| Document and summarise pre-contract correspondences | |
| Manage significant missing items, drastic qty variances and errors in a SOQ in a BID well | |
| Understanding the current market conditions when drafting the contract | |
| Tenderers should be given sufficient time to price |
| Be clear about the allocation of risks | To hold expectation management meetings |
| Tenderer to identify its portion of risk | Contractors should inform about the alternative products at early stage |
| Educate the Principal about the construction process | Get clear about the scope that Contractor quotes |
| Be clear about responsibilities | Tenderer should not overly expect on the Principal’s knowledge on the project |
| Define and use a standard method of measurement | |
| Detailed and accurate design documentation | |
| Draft the contract in clear and simple language | |
| Involvement of Competent people to understand the contract administration well | Be clear on what Contractor should design and what documentations should provide |
| Contractor should keep in mind to inform Principal and submit any claims in a timely manner | Agreement on quality and standard criteria beforehand |
| Setting out reporting requirements in the Contract | Engage consultants for design aspects rather than contractors as much as possible |
| Training and learning from past experiences | Understand where Principal’s design risk finishes and where Contractor’s risk starts |
| Tenders to establish training and learning opportunities | |
| Document the scope clearly | |
| Develop the design into a greater extent during pre-contract stage | |
| Selecting competent Principal’s representatives | |
| Document and summarise pre-contract correspondences | |
| Manage significant missing items, drastic qty variances and errors in a SOQ in a BID well | |
| Understanding the current market conditions when drafting the contract | |
| Tenderers should be given sufficient time to price |
Sharing content requires targeting cookies to be enabled. Please update your cookie preferences to use this feature.