UAE Contracts

UAE contracts offers a range of contractual support services tailored to your business needs. Advice can be provided from tender preparation to warranty and we can handle every aspect of the contract administration for you. If you prefer, we can consult on problems as they arise or we can simply assist in claims preparation. Below, we describe some of the ways we provide support.

Tender Risk Analysis

When tendering for larger projects, you will receive complicated document sets with hundreds of pages of information to consider and be bound by when you submit your tender offer. This is particularly important when working lump sum, fixed price, but risks remain when making an offer for lump sum based on supplied quantities or working on a remeasureable basis.

We will review Instructions to Tenderers, Subcontract forms, Conditions of Contract, Bond and Insurance Formats, Bill of Quantity (BoQ) preambles, Payment Conditions and other documents wording you receive and provide a risk analysis in the form of a schedule with risks weighted by severity.

We do not provide pricing from drawings or specifications and we do not analyse BoQ structure, although we will review preliminaries and other items not related to materials or installation if required.

This will allow you to focus on pricing the drawings and specifications using your technical expertise but with a clear idea of where the pitfalls will arise from the contractual elements.

Negotiation of Letter of Intent / Award / Appointment

Once the project is awarded, if you are successful, you will receive a letter or notice from the Employer, Engineer or Main Contractor, depending on the type of contract you have been tendering. It is customary to be asked to sign and return this letter to confirm acceptance. Such letters are usually carefully worded in favour of the offering party and can reduce your tendered rights and increase your obligations. We can assist you by reviewing this letter and recommending amendments. Most Clients will understand and accept such negotiation if approached in a suitably diplomatic manner. We can also guide you practically on the pitfalls of operating under Letters in Intent in the UAE.

Negotiation of Bonds and Insurances

After accepting and returning a Letter of Intent / Award / Appointment, the next phase will usually be to provide bonds and insurances. We can assist you with techniques to bridge the gap between what your bank requires and the format required by the other Party to your contract. Such discussions can delay receipt of advance payment by weeks while the clock is ticking for your performance on the project, increasing daily exposure.

Negotiation of Contract Documents

After appointment, many, but not all, Employers and Contractors will issue a suite of subcontract documents for you to sign. Typically, these will be an assembly of the tender documents, post tender clarifications, construction drawings and a variety of other documents. This is a critical contractual stage and be fraught with risk. Once you sign the subcontract, it is typically the primary document and can supersede or rule over anything you thought was already settled via appointment or tender documents.

We can guide and advise you through this tricky stage to ensure your rights are maximised, even if you are told that you priced the conditions during tender, there are still options available to you. Please note, similar issues exist during negotiation of the appointment or award letter.

Contract Administration

Once you have been appointed, the project is live, whether or not you have finalised and signed the contract. From early on, you will need to administer the contract correctly to avoid problems building later on. Notice requirements, time barring and other requirements can preclude rights you may later need to protect your company.

We analyse the terms and conditions you are bound by and provide you with a full suite of letter templates to cover all of the requirements of contract and put these into a logical framework so you can see what you must do,, by when and how often to be in full compliance.

Contract Administration - Day to Day

If we have created a contract administration system for you to operate, but you prefer we handle this for you, we offer a part time retainer system whereby we allocated a limited time per month to write the letters for you using the management system we created earlier. All you do is provide facts, photographs and descriptions as required of the events occurring at site and we will ensure these are recorded with the other Party to your contract to maximise your later rights.

Contract Administration - Out of the Ordinary Occurrences

From time to time, issues arise that are more serious such as Termination, Termination for Convenience, Force Majeure, Notice to Correct, Contra-charge Notices, Delay Notices, Notice of consequential loss and a variety of other matters. We can assist in handling these frightening issues in a logical, calm manner to ensure your position is best protected.

Extension of Time, Claims and Billing disputes

During the day-to-day administration of your contract, notices giving rise to entitlement to Extension of Time (EoT), with or without costs, will be issued to the other Party. These notices will typically be used to prevent Liquidated Damages, penalties or other charges being applied to your account. You may decide to go one step further and claim for the costs associated with the delay.

In such circumstances, we can assist in the preparation of a fully detailed and substantiated claim document along with all of the follow-up documents usually requested by the other Party or its consultants in response. We can also assist with billing disputes, cash-flow release and other matters arising month to month.

Project Close-out

As the close-out phase of a project is reached, another suite of sometimes onerous contractual mechanisms come into play. We can assist with draft warranty, final warranty, documentation close-out, notice of completion, statement of completion, defects disputes, request for Taking-Over Certificates, request for return of bonds, request for reduction in bond value, and final account statements, waiver of claims, release statements and more.

Anything Else

We have encountered almost every scenario possible whilst contracting in the UAE. Whatever crops up, we can assist you to find reasonable, logical and safe solutions to best protect your business.