Cost & decisions
Penalties vs liquidated damages in construction (JBCC)
A late contractor owes the daily penalty written into the contract, and nothing if the Contract Data was left blank. Here is where the penalty stops.
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All resources
Payment & retention
Cost & decisions
NEC vs JBCC in South Africa: who can instruct you?
Under the JBCC the principal agent instructs, under the NEC the project manager does, and an instruction from anyone else is a risk you price yourself.
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Cost & decisions
What to check before hiring a contractor
Britain's new trusted trader scheme is voluntary. South Africa already has five registers, and a deposit rule that only bites once the money has gone.
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Cost & decisions
How to get paid on a South African construction contract
Five clauses decide it: deposit, certificate, retention, escalation and remedy. Each has a date, and the money moves on those dates or not at all.
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Compliance
What to do when a client will not pay a certificate
The contract already carries the remedy, and the compliance file that keeps you on site quietly expires while you wait for the money.
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Site & delivery
When a municipal contract runs out of money at 95%
Johannesburg Water stopped a tower at 95% because the contract budget was exhausted, and the standing time is now somebody's to carry.
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Cost & decisions
How long can retention be held in South Africa?
Retention runs on your contract's clock, not on a statutory one, and on a R3 million job the 5% still held at month nine is R150 000 of yours.
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The Arabella Brief
What changed this week, and what it costs you on Monday.
One email on a Friday, covering the week from Friday to Thursday so the week is closed when it is written. What actually changed, everything with a date on it, one development run through what it means for a contractor with forty people, and what we got wrong. A thin week is a short issue.