The New Construction Act is here

Significant amendments to the contracts legislation contained in Part II of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 (“the Construction Act”) came into force on 1 October 2011.

This will result in changes to payment procedures and adjudication rights that will potentially affect all building engineering services contractors.

Read our Top Ten analysis of the New Act here.

Members MUST ensure they are fully aware of the implications for their business of the revised legislation and the HVCA Commercial and Legal Department is standing by to answer any queries.

We have already run a series of seminars on the legislation for members and watch this space for future updates.

The key issues addressed in the seminars were:  

• ensuring contracts are compliant;
• the potential pitfalls of new payment notice provisions (including the right to withhold sums due);
• payment procedures, including timetable and notice requirements;
• eradication of pay-when-certified and linked-retentions arrangements;
• the revised right to suspend work;
• application to oral contracts as well as written contracts;
• important amendments that need to be made to bespoke and standard form building contracts, sub-contracts and to consultant appointments to ensure compliance.

For any questions relating to the Act, please contact Rob Driscoll on 020 7313 4918.