The commercial considerations of engaging a contractor
Back to the Contractor lead schedule
Introduction
Most legal disputes in business arise because insufficient care was taken during the initial negotiation between the engager and contractor to agree who is responsible for doing what, when and how, and then settling on an agreed reconciliation service to resolve any disputes that may arise in the future. It is a tedious and exacting process, but any time and costs lost to diligently putting in place a legally enforcible and common sense written agreement will be orders of magnitude less than the time and costs of resolving a dispute that goes legal.
It would be sheer folly on our part to let a contractor loose on our clients' sites without a water-tight, legally enforcible contract that requires them to work safely and compliantly.
Should the contractor's work or behavior cause an issue for our client, then the fact we have been careless and negligent in appointing them will reflect badly on us. We could easily destroy years of building up a reputation for delivering a safe and reliable service overnight, and lose a valuable stream of income for the future. We only have a small pool of potential clients we can do business with. Bad news about a contractor travels fastest.
So, it makes sense to communicate and agree in writing what every stakeholder in a project must bring to the table. This can be achieved by:
- Marisco and the contractor agreeing and signing a contract of engagement setting out the commercial terms, conditions and arrangements both parties must provide in fulfilling the agreement.
- It is only sensible for all the stakeholders to agree the timings, method of delivery of the services, and the control and management of personnel on site to ensure the smooth running of the project.
All change: A new era in contractor control and management is upon us
All our local authority clients engage Marisco under an extensive commercial contract that dictates the terms and conditions under which both parties operate and adhere to over the life of the agreement. Nothing new or particularly onerous in that respect. We are accustomed to meeting our obligations as part of our normal mode of operation.
Our relationship and the way we will operate with our clients is about to undergo a radical change.
The 2017 Grenfell Tower fire highlighted the extent of the indifference, incompetency, gross negligence, and dishonesty of those involved in the tower's refurbishment programme, which created the conditions that permitted a small kitchen fire that should have been contained within the one flat, to escape the compromised fire compartment and quickly engulf the whole building, resulting in the loss of so many lives.
Six years later, many of the provisions of the Building Safety Act 2022 designed to improve building safety in the aftermath of the Grenfell tragedy, came into force in October 2023.
Whilst Marisco is subject to all the new legislative changes that demand we improve our own compliance with building safety standards, it is our clients who are currently undergoing the most radical changes in the way they manage their social housing stock under the purview of the Building Safety Regulator.
It should be obvious that whatever changes our clients adopt in the way they manage their social housing stock will quickly impact on us as one of their key principal contractors.
Marisco Group
Head Office:
Unit J5, The Fulcrum
Vantage Way, Poole, BH12 4NU
Tel: 01202 474001
Email: accounts@mariscosouth.com
Marisco South Ltd is registered with:
