What is a notice to refer a dispute to adjudication

This article is all about explaining what is a notice to refer a dispute to adjudication. This term is a key component or step of the Construction Adjudication process. If you want to learn more about Construction Adjudication we have an online course for sale on this website.

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.

What is a notice to refer a dispute to adjudication ?

A notice to refer a dispute to adjudication is simply one step in the Adjudication process.

There are several steps in adjudication, which we will not go through one-by-one in detail here but just simply list out.

The steps are as follows:

Step 1 Give notice of intention to refer a dispute to adjudication
Step 2 Send application form to the RICS
Step 3 Prepare and send the referral notice
Step 4 Comment on the Other Parties response
Step 5 Deal with the Adjudicator
Step 6 The Decision
Step 7 What happens then?

Step 1 Give ‘notice of intention to refer a dispute to adjudication’

In this step the referring party (essentially the plaintiff) send a letter to the other party (essentially the defendant) advising them of their intention to appoint an adjudicator on this project.

This step is called ‘giving notice’. You are giving formal notice to the other party that you intend to refer a dispute to adjudication.

In practice, you literally just have to write a letter on your headed paper saying ‘we intend to appoint an adjudicator on this project’. Give the full name of the project and details of the contract so there is no confusion as to which project you are referring to.

Print your letter out, scan it and email it to the other party. Use an email address that they have used before and copy in the email address off their website. Then post the letter to their official address.

And that’s it!

That’s how you give notice of intention to refer a dispute to adjudication.

Simple right?

What must be in the notice ?

So what must be in the notice?

The notice must contain the following:

• your details, business details, name, address
• a description of the nature of the dispute and the parties involved.
• details of where and when the dispute arose.
• reference to your attempts to solve the dispute (proof that the dispute has ‘crystallised’)
• the nature of the remedy being sought, i.e. what you the referring party wants.
• names and addresses of the parties to the contract, including addresses where documents may be served.

Remember that this is just giving notice to the other party and you will get the opportunity to give your full arguments at a later step.

This is just you formally saying ‘hey, we can’t agree this issue through negotiation so I am going to get an adjudicator to decide this issue for us’.

In a lot of cases, just this notice can be enough stimulus for a responding party to seek an agreement before proceeding to adjudication.

What happens if you do not issue the notice correctly?

If you don’t give notice correctly then when you proceed to step 2 you will be knocked back. So, for example if you proceed to step 2 and send an application form into the RICS they will say where is the copy of the notice?

So then you will have to start again.