The following Construction news provides comprehensive and up to date legal information on Construction weekly highlights—1 May 2025
What are preliminaries in a construction contract?What are prelims?‘Preliminaries’ in a construction contract, or ‘prelims’, is typically taken to...
What is a variation on a construction project?A variation (sometimes referred to as a change) is an alteration to the scope of work originally...
Escrow accounts and escrow agreementsThis Practice Note examines why parties involved in a construction project may enter into an escrow agreement (or...
Defects liability period and rectification of defectsIt is common in construction projects for defects to manifest or appear in the works. Most...
Time of the essence—construction contractsWhat does time of the essence mean?Where time is 'of the essence' it means that the stated time for completion of an obligation in a contract is a condition of the contract. Failing to comply can therefore allow the innocent party to terminate the contract
Implied terms in construction contractsThe implication of terms into a contract is a large and complicated area of law. Sometimes, a particular term will be implied automatically into all contracts of a specific type, either by statute or by common law. In other cases, implied terms are a way of
Negligence in constructionWhile tort claims are not as common in construction projects as breach of contract claims, they do still arise and it is not uncommon for a claimant to advance a claim in tort alongside, or in the alternative to, a claim in contract.The most relevant tort in construction is
Hierarchy of documents within a construction contractThis Practice Note considers hierarchy of documents clauses within a building contract (otherwise known as order of precedence clauses, precedence clauses or priority of documents clauses).Construction contracts can be lengthy and made up of a
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