POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE EMPLOYER AND CONTRACTOR—PART I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter and the next chapter are intended to look at how some of the most commonly encountered features of any project are dealt with under Standard Form Building Contracts. It will be apparent after reading this book that different standard forms deal with these concepts in different ways. In part this is a matter of drafting. However, and more importantly, it is a question of allocation of risk. A contract, after all, is no more than a mechanism for allocating the risks which will be encountered by the parties during the course of the project. Thus it will become apparent that there is no right way of dealing with any particular issue and it is up to the parties to determine a means of dealing with matters which best suits the requirements of the particular project.