This article is all about the Scheme for Construction Contracts, a set of regulations which affects how Adjudication is run in the UK.
Stravelles run a course in Adjudication which aims to allow the student to run their own adjudication as the referring or responding party without paying for legal representation.
We support legal representation in more complex cases but we want to encourage especially smaller companies to feel more confident fighting for their contractual rights.
The Scheme for Construction Contracts or ‘The Scheme for Construction Contracts (England and Wales) Regulations’ was a set of regulations introduced in 1998 to essentially close down some loop-holes or ambiguities in The Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act.
This scheme applies when a construction contract does not fulfil the requirements of The Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration act 1996
The end result of the introduction of the scheme is that almost all construction contracts are capable of being referred to Construction Adjudication.
So, to explain it really simply, if your construction dispute cannot be referred to adjudication using the construction act, you may well be able to refer the contract to adjudication using the scheme.
There are two parts of the Scheme for Construction Contracts:
Part 1 makes provision for adjudication to apply where the existing contract does not or where the contract does not fulfil the requirements of the Construction Act.
Part 2 replaces any specific provisions in relation to payment that do not fulfil the requirements of the Housing Grants Construction and Regeneration act.
This means that the contract is still valid and capable of performance.
However now the contract can avail of Adjudication and the scheme provides detailed procedures that override any contractual provisions regarding payment.
The scheme is essentially just a quick fix of any small issues that were faced by Adjudication in the preceding decade.
In October of 2011 several amendments were made to The Construction act and to the Scheme to eliminate some additional loopholes that had made themselves known since 2009.
These amendments not included: