Any party involved in a construction contract is able to bring a dispute, which may have arrived during a project and involves the construction contract, to a construction adjudicator, like Sum.

There are strict rules which govern the adjudication process in construction. Section 108 of the Construction Act outlines the requirements with which all parties should comply with in order to proceed. These strict rules are put in place to ensure that everyone involved in the process is aware of what is required.

Adjudication for the optimum outcome

Although a construction project may be planned and considered in great detail, it can be hard to completely avoid any kind of dispute within construction or engineering projects. With so many people involved in the process, sometimes disputes are unavoidable, however, they can be resolved quickly via adjudication.

In an adjudication, opposing parties will be supported by a professional representative, like Sum, who can offer advice on jurisdictional issues, prepare notices such as referrals or responses to these for the opposing party.

How does an adjudication begin?

In order to begin the process of construction adjudication, a referring party will need to serve notice onto every party involved in the construction contract. This notice must detail their intention to refer a current dispute to be adjudicated and is one of the most critically important documents in the process.

The notice must include details of the contract alongside the names and addresses of all parties to the contract. The notice must also include a description of the dispute, detailing the situation which has arisen between the parties and when this occurred, to the best of their knowledge. Finally, the notice should include how the referring party believe relief to be brought about and how they want the adjudicator to resolve the issue.

One of the key takeaways in regards to the notice is that the document should identify just one dispute unless otherwise specified within the contract. This means that anyone who chooses to bring a dispute to adjudication should ensure that they are accurate in describing and characterising the dispute they wish to be undertaken during the adjudication process.

Finally, the relief sought as the outcome of the adjudication should be clearly spelt out within the document.