Members of the construction industry hoping to avoid project disputes know full well that the best first step is to draft airtight, unambiguous contracts. But as our team of construction law experts, Krista Chaytor, Faren Bogach and Jeff Scorgie explained at the sixth session of WeirFoulds’ Tools for Success series on June 10, 2021, it is also important to cultivate strong relationships to keep projects on the rails and avoid costly disputes.
“You can have the best contract in the world, but if you’re not maintaining those relationships, it’s not going to help you at the end of the day,” said Jeff Scorgie. “If you’re really difficult to work with, or if you don’t work well with the team members and your partners on the project, you’re setting yourself up for failure.”
Jiwan Thapar, CEO of JTE Claims Consultants Ltd., also joined the discussion on construction disputes as the group wrapped up the six-part webinar series.
“Understanding what it takes to avoid a construction dispute is the most important thing in contract administration,” he said.
Jeff went on to emphasize that avoiding ambiguity in the contract is critical to minimizing disputes. “Being very clear on exclusions, being clear on how the change order process works, is there an agreed upon markup for changes, have the parties agree on the hourly rates that will be used for changes, put all of that very clearly in the contract — don’t just assume because there’s been a discussion that you don’t have to address it in the contract.”
Click here to read the full article, “Partners with strongest relationships emerged from COVID intact says WeirFoulds panelist”, in Daily Commercial News.
