On 1 October 2011 the Construction Act* (that governs all construction contracts in the UK) will be amended. All construction contracts made on or after 1 October in England and Wales (and 1 November 2011 in Scotland) are required to comply with the amended version of the Act.
What is the purpose of the amendments?
The intention is to:
- Prevent payments to sub-contractors being delayed
- Make allowances for oral contracts
- Extend the prohibition on pay-when-paid clauses
- Enforce the use of proper withholding notices
- Confer power to adjudicators to apportion their fees
- Replacing the ICE Adjudication Procedure
To incorporate the changes and to stay up to date with current best practice, we have replaced the ICE Adjudication Procedure 1997 with the ICE Adjudication Procedure 2011. The procedure is available to download free from www.ice.org.uk/dispute_resolution. You can purchase hard copies by calling +44 (0)20 7665 2224.
*The Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996
- The LDECA removes the requirements for a construction contract to be evidenced in writing. It thus extends the provision of the Construction Act to include oral and partly oral contracts The Parties may now agree in advance of an adjudication to confer power on the adjudicator to allocate their fees and expenses, providing such agreements are in writing and contained in the contract
- The prohibition of conditional payment through ‘pay when paid’ clauses is extended
- Measures are included to prevent payments to sub-contractors being delayed by operations carried out under other contracts
- The payer has to pay the payee the notified sum unless an effective withholding notice has been issued with the agreed or prescribed period