In the construction world, performing the role of a contract administrator is a critical one. A minor failure can result in substantial cost penalties. To avoid the costly penalties, these administrators need to have the proper training or should be attended the right course so that they can avoid easily the costly mistakes.
Few points that they need to consider:
Confirm first the contents and terms
Construction contract administration is more about managing precisely the obligations and rights of each party in a contract. It is quite difficult for administrators to maintain all the terms of the existing contract. The first step that they need to follow is to obtain the complete copy of their building contract with all the general terms, specific conditions, reports, drawings, proper construction program etc.
Creating the project commencement checklist
All of the construction contracts detail all the obligations of each builder or owner before the work commencement on the site. These are critical obligations and if the administrator doesn’t comply with, they will prevent the builder from obtaining right access to their site. Obligations are like,
- Provisions of all the important insurance, another work process, safety etc.
- Inducting all staff who will work on-site
- Submitting all the important security bonds according to contract
Create critical notice
commonly, the new age construction contracts need to be littered with the clauses of time bar that may prevent the builders from making their claims against the owners unless they offer the contractually required notice within the deadline. A builder can lose extra time or money both. Administrators need to manage and track properly such type of obligations of the builders and need to have a checklist to manage the claims.
Have the instructions in writing
The most common failure in the administration process comes from the parties who fail to obtain or confirm all the instruction in the writing. When you confirm the verbal instruction in the writing format, you will get control the detail instructions and it can draft it as more effective for you.
Be clear on the Practical completion
Today’s construction world is more sophisticated and complex. It is really important today for the administrators to know the detailed requirements so that they can achieve practical completion. This is a point in time in the construction project where the structure built has completed sufficiently to allow the use and occupation, by avoiding any defects. This is the reason that the contract administrator who is working for a builder should check out the requirements to achieve the practical completion and to understand the outset of the projects.
Some of the requirements for the practical completion include operation preparations and maintenance manuals, certificates for different types of work like electrical, rating, hydraulic, lift installation, mechanical etc may vary from one supplier/subcontractor to another. A small failure in any function at the beginning can make you take the critical steps of recovering that is quite impossible at the end of the project.
