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Dealing with contractors & sub-contractors
It's all in the details
Scaling your team quickly and getting involved in projects with other parties can be great for your business – if you get the details right.
Working with contractors and sub-contractors has become increasingly complicated. Relationships can be governed by lengthy contracts, particularly in the construction industry.
There is usually a lot of legal and technical language to get your head around and there is too much riding on your contracts to simply sign up and hope for the best, if you don’t understand what you have committed to.
Once you have signed a contract, it can be near impossible to get out of what you have agreed to in writing without there being harsh consequences or penalties.
We are experts in reviewing contracts and helping you understand what you are committing to. What’s more, we want to see you protect your interests and get the most out of your projects.
Timely payment
Outside of signing up contracts, we know that timely payment of invoices is one of the biggest issues for contractors.
In the construction industry, disputes, supply chain issues, solvency and bad faith business practices are all reasons why parties may default on their contractual obligation to make payment for work.
Fortunately, the Construction Contracts Act 2002 (“the Act”) allows tradespeople to serve a payment claim on a customer, which is a quick and powerful tool to secure payment for construction work.
However, the Act still provides a way for payers to dispute a claimed amount: by issuing a payment schedule.
Disputes
- Disputes are common in the construction industry. Allegations of poor workmanship and contractual breaches often prevent the timely payment of invoices, which is one of the biggest issues contractors face.
- Fortunately, the Act also provides a quick and cost-effective process by which construction disputes can be resolved: adjudication.
- Read our Dealing with Contractors & Sub-Contractors Fact Sheets to better understand how to deal with your contracts, including the processes for addressing payment and dispute matters under the Act.
- For further advice, contact us at Tradie Law to discuss your issue and how we can best help you.
Fact sheets
We’ve put together a range of free resources to support trades businesses to navigate the legal landscape, the below links will help with unpaid invoices.
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