Sub-Contractor Support - Success Story

Ramskill Martin are Multi-Disciplinary Contract Consultants providing Advice and Support in Risk Management and Dispute Resolution for Specialist Sub-Contractors working within the Construction and Engineering Sectors.

We regularly work with Specialist Sub-Contractors and pride ourselves on the results achieved and the business protection this provides.

The key is in the strategy adopted and the case below illustrates this point:

The following is a typical scenario faced by Specialist Sub-Contractors, including Delays caused by late information and/or the Main Works, and the inappropriate use of Pay Less provisions by the Main Contractor. This highlights the results Ramskill Martin deliver.

The Main Contract Works were in delay and the Sub-Contractor Works were subsequently experiencing a six week delay. Design information was incomplete and delayed, however, the Sub-Contractor was culpable for some delays in developing the design for fabrication and installation purposes. 

There was evidence of defective work for which the Main Contractor had employed an expert for evidence purposes.

The Main Contractor issued a Pay Less Notice for defective works for circa £420k, prolongation costs of £610k and around £400k for a Variation Account. A further £340k was proposed to be deducted for Liquidated Damages, taking the overall risk to around £1.8m.

Ramskill Martin prepared a Risk and Reward Review and very quickly established that, due to both Parties’ culpability and complexities of the issues, achieving a favourable Adjudicator’s Decision was high risk.

The cost and timescale for preparing the Delay Analysis was also prohibitive from the Sub-Contractor’s point of view.

Ramskill Martin prepared a compelling Position Statement which was issued to the Main Contractor setting out the strengths of the Sub-Contractor’s case for Time, Quantum and in respect of the Defects.

The leverage generated from the submission persuaded the Main Contractor to negotiate and the Parties amicably settled (full and final) with a further payment to the Sub-Contractor of £1.1m out of the sums being deducted of £1.4m.

The overall process was achieved in just over 3 months.