Types of Claim - Construction Claims and Responses: Effective Writing and Presentation - page 11

Chapter 2
Types of Claim
A claim is simply an assertion of a party's right under the terms of a con-
tract or under law. In the construction industry, this more often than not
comes down to either a right to additional time to complete the works or
to additional payment and is very often a combination of the two. In claim
presentations, however, much confusion seems to result from erroneous
assumptions regarding delay, extensions of time and money and it is
therefore important to be aware that delay does not always bring about
an extension of time and that an extension of time does not always bring
about an award of money.
This chapter examines the more common types of claim and discusses
how they may be applicable to a simple event on a typical project. The
event we will examine is the division of one large room on a project into
two smaller rooms by the addition of a new blockwork partition wall, a new
doorway, additional lighting and additional electrical power outlets.
Claims for Variations
Simply put, a variation is something that changes the nature of the project.
This may consist of additional or less work, a change in the specifi cation
of part of the work, or in some cases a change to the contractual basis of
the project such as the contract price or period. In most construction con-
tracts, the Employer is permitted to make such changes and this is usually
administered by his appointed agents such as the Engineer under the
FIDIC forms of contract.
Most standard forms of contract place the onus on the Engineer to issue
instructions to vary the works and most will specifi cally prohibit the
Contractor from carrying out variations without written instructions. In an
ideal world such changes would be correctly administered by the Engineer
by way of formal variation instructions, accompanied by additional informa-
tion such as drawings and the like to enable the Contractor to carry out
the varied work and, of course, the instructions would all be issued in
plenty of time so as not to disrupt or delay the Contractor's planned
sequence of work in any way.