Carefully Written Contracts to Help Builders Under Pressure

Ben Twomey, a Legal Practitioner and Director at commercial litigation firm Twomey Dispute Lawyers, has urged builders to consider strategies that mitigate rising prices and supply chain delays.

The construction industry and independent home builders are under rising pressure, as delays continue and prices continue to rise. However, there are ways to combat the mounting burden.

It is recommended that home and commercial builders, instead of fixed-price contracts, should ensure that prices are able to ‘float’ within a provisional sum contract. Builder will need to provide clients with adequate estimations of costs and timelines, however, the need for flexibility rises with the inflation of materials cost.

Builders all around Australia have been impacted by labour and material shortages, as record volumes of work in detached housing have coincided with COVID-related disruptions to the supply of their materials.

To avoid mounting pressure, Twomey suggests carefully worded contracts that concentrate on flexibility.