Clifford Chance
Changes to the Construction Act 1 October 2011, are you ready?
25 August 2011
The amendments to the Construction Act brought in by LDEDCA are due to come into force in England on 1st October 2011.
This means that most construction documents currently used in the UK (such as building contracts, professional appointments and sub-contracts) will need to be amended to comply with the new law. In essence this will entail:
- A modified payment regime (for example the current "withholding notice" is replaced with a "pay less notice" and there is a new default notice)
- Changes to the statutory adjudication process
- An enhanced right for consultants/contractors/sub-contractors to suspend work for non-payment and claim costs/expenses
Although the changes are not enormous in substance they are mandatory (no contracting out is permitted). Construction documents which do not comply
will have terms implied into them by the Scheme (the default set of payment
and adjudication clauses that apply to non-compliant contracts).
The changes do not have retrospective effect. This means that any construction documents currently being negotiated will either need to be signed by 30 September 2011 or amended to comply with the new law after that date.
