International airport, finishing works
Finishing works payments, rates for new items and contract amendments.
Services · 02
Contract Administration
Commercial and technical support for FIDIC contracts: contract review, notice registers, variation management, EOT claims and subcontract review.
Who it is for
- Contractors and subcontractors on FIDIC Red, Yellow or Silver Book projects
- Subcontractors about to sign a back-to-back subcontract
- Contractors tendering for international work under FIDIC
- Teams that need a claim or extension of time file prepared before a dispute escalates
What it fixes
- The contract is signed but nobody has the notice periods in a calendar, so claims fail on time bars.
- Payment, deduction and penalty clauses in the subcontract are not back-to-back with the main contract.
- Employer delays happened, but the records needed for an extension of time were never kept.
- Variations were instructed verbally, the work was done, and the value was never agreed in writing.
- At tender stage nobody priced the risks the particular conditions shifted to the contractor.
Scope and deliverables
| Item | Deliverable |
|---|---|
| 02.01 | Clause-by-clause commercial and technical review |
| 02.02 | Risk and obligation register (who does what, by when, at what cost) |
| 02.03 | Notice calendar based on FIDIC 1999 or 2017 time limits and the particular conditions |
| 02.04 | Variation register and correspondence templates |
| 02.05 | Technical preparation of claim files (event, effect, cost and time) |
| 02.06 | Extension of time submissions supported by programme and delay analysis |
| 02.07 | Back-to-back check of subcontracts against the main contract |
How I work
- Step 01
Read the contract
I read the contract, particular conditions, appendices and tender documents end to end. The first output is a short list of clauses to raise before signature.
- Step 02
Map the risk
Every obligation goes into a register with its owner, time limit and financial effect. Notice periods go into a calendar.
- Step 03
Set up the records
I adapt event logs, variation registers and letter templates to your team. Claims are won on contemporary records.
- Step 04
Build the file
When an entitlement arises, I prepare the event, effect and cost analysis with its evidence, supported by delay analysis where needed.
The commercial side of the contract
Most of a construction contract is technical and financial obligations written in legal language. How long the engineer has to certify, how a variation must be instructed, how delay damages are calculated, how many days a material submittal takes. These clauses play out on site every day and are usually managed by the technical office.
That is the part I handle: reading the clauses, mapping who does what by when, and making sure the records exist when an event happens. Legal interpretation and dispute strategy belong to your lawyer. I bring them an organised technical file with checked figures.
Time bars under FIDIC
Under FIDIC, contractors rarely lose entitlement on the technical merits. They lose it on a missed notice. The 2017 editions tighten this further, with a notice within 28 days and a fully detailed claim within 84 days of awareness, and particular conditions often change these. When I review a contract, every notice obligation goes into a calendar with its day count, and amended clauses are flagged.
Example scenario
A Turkish subcontractor is about to sign for the civil works on a FIDIC Yellow Book water treatment plant. The main contractor’s subcontract shortens the notice periods from the main contract and lengthens the payment period. Before signature I set out these differences in one table and rank which clauses to negotiate. After signature I set up a simple system for logging events and variations so that nothing depends on memory.
Claims and extensions of time
A good claim answers three questions: what happened, how it affected the work, and what it cost. The first is answered by correspondence and site records, the second by the programme and delay analysis, the third by cost records. Because I also work on scheduling and quantity surveying, I can prepare all three in one file with figures that agree with each other.
Before a dispute
Many disputes start as a claim that was never properly documented. If you can see one coming, the most useful step is usually to organise the records while people still remember the events. I can build a chronology, link each event to its correspondence and programme impact, and hand your lawyer or claims consultant a file they can work from on day one.
Related projects
Wastewater treatment plant, Saudi Arabia
Payment applications, new unit rates, comparative take-offs, design revisions, material submittals and procurement.
FIDIC / EPC treatment plants
Payment applications, payment schedules, contracts and amendments, tender documents and claim reports.
Questions clients ask
Is this legal advice?
No. I work on the technical and commercial side of the contract. Where a matter needs a legal opinion, I work alongside your lawyer, and the technical file I prepare makes their work faster.
Should we bring you in before or after signing?
Before is cheapest. After signing I can still set up the register and the notice calendar, but we work with clauses that can no longer change.
Which FIDIC books do you work with?
Red, Yellow and Silver Book, both 1999 and 2017 editions. Particular conditions are read separately on every project, because that is where most of the risk sits.
Do you review subcontracts?
Yes. I check whether the time limits and deductions in the main contract have been passed down correctly. Mismatches are one of the most common ways subcontractors lose money.
Can you guarantee a claim will succeed?
No one can. What I can deliver is a claim whose event, time and cost are each backed by documents and can be checked by the engineer.
Do you work in languages other than English?
Turkish as well. On projects with Turkish contractors abroad I often prepare the internal report in Turkish and the correspondence in English.
Where a matter needs a legal opinion, I work alongside the client's lawyer.
New project
Tell me about your project in a few lines.
Describe what needs doing and we will pin down scope and timing together.