Contract administration meaning

Your options will depend on whether your trading partner has entered an insolvency process (such as administration or liquidation). Pre-insolvency proceeding If you suspect your trading partner is facing financial difficulty, consider these steps: Review your contract terms; has their financial condition triggered a termination clause, eg have they failed to pay undisputed statutory demands from other creditors? Can you suspend services or stop deliveries? Do you hold security over any of their goods? Seek to renegotiate payment terms; request payment in advance, tighten retention of title provisions (see Practice Note: Dealing with suppliers, customers and ROT claims), and create security over your trading partner’s goods. Keep written evidence of payment demands. You may need to show that payments from your trading partner were valid (eg the debt had fallen due for payment), rather than a deliberate intention to pay you ahead of other creditors. Otherwise, you might have to repay the money as a preference. Are your retention of title provisions...

This Checklist outlines the key matters a tenant should weigh up if the landlord becomes insolvent. A tenant must continue to fulfil its obligations under the lease, and should promptly contact the insolvency practitioner, as the tenant will need the information set out below. Swift contact is important because guidance on payments and other particulars will be required. Who should rent be paid to? Rent must still be paid in line with the lease. Where the landlord is in administration, liquidation or bankruptcy, or a receiver has been appointed over the property, payment should be made to the administrator, liquidator, trustee in bankruptcy or receiver, as applicable. Under a company voluntary arrangement (CVA), rent may instead be due to the CVA supervisor, subject to the CVA terms. The insolvency practitioner will usually serve notice on the tenant confirming where rent must be sent. Is the landlord holding a rent deposit? You should consider whether the rent deposit deed has been drafted so the deposit is held...

Procurement process flowchart This Procurement process flowchart outlines the sequence a procurement might follow and highlights the factors to weigh and the considerations involved to maintain a transparent and appropriate procedure. It further points to the Precedents on hand to support you through the procurement steps. This Flowchart serves as a worked illustration and is not meant to be exhaustive. While organisations may adopt quite varied approaches, it offers a useful baseline or point of reference. Any contract value amounts shown here are for demonstration purposes only...

In this issue: Standard form contracts Building safety Expert witnesses Construction industry news Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Construction trackers Standard form contracts CLLS publishes 2024 edition of Letter of Intent The CLLS has released the refreshed 2024 edition of its Letter of Intent. Our commentary reviews the revisions made. See News Analysis: City of London Law Society publishes 2024 edition of Letter of Intent. Court refuses declaratory relief in JCT termination payment dispute (Shaylor v Valesecure) In Shaylor Group Ltd (in administration) v Valesecure Property Ltd (in liquidation) [2024] EWHC 750 (TCC), the Technology and Construction Court declined to issue declarations regarding the contractor’s right to payment after the termination of a JCT-based contract. In doing so, the court explored noteworthy issues of contractual interpretation, including the methodology for assessing sums owed to the contractor post-termination and the impact of an ineffective assignment by the employer. See News Analysis:...

Petrofac Ltd [2025] EWHC 2887 (Ch) What was the background? Petrofac Ltd (the Company) is a Jersey-incorporated entity, headquartered in London, that functions as the holding company of the Petrofac Group. Its operations comprise owning shares in subsidiaries, delivering management services, and making loans to other Petrofac Group members. Confronted with financial difficulties, in late 2024 the Company promoted a restructuring plan under Part 26A of the Companies Act 2006 (the Part 26A plan). Although sanctioned at first instance, dissenting creditors appealed and the Court of Appeal set aside the sanction order. In the wake of that ruling, the Company assessed the feasibility of a business disposal or raising further capital, which evolved into a proposal for senior creditors to acquire the business via a pre-pack administration. Those workstreams progressed in tandem with an application for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court; permission was ultimately refused on the basis that the Company had reached an agreement in principle on an alternative restructuring proposal. The landscape then changed...

Re Argentex (Conway v Plass and others) [2025] EWHC 3125 (Ch), [2025] EWHC 3125 (Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? On the Expense Question, the decision offers clear direction on when administrators may create liabilities ranking as an expense of the administration while closing out a trading book. The court confirmed that simply taking no action does not generate an expense liability. As for close out, although it required Argentex to take an affirmative step under the contractual terms (an election to close out), that act did not give rise to an expense liability. Turning to the Termination Question, the judgment addresses a significant point of contractual interpretation in the context of foreign exchange contracts, namely the circumstances in which a provider of foreign exchange services may close out a position for ‘its own protection’—a phrase commonly found in such agreements. The Court concluded that, on the correct construction, the relevant contractual provision could not be relied on by Argentex to shield itself from...

This Practice Note sets out, step by step, how to assemble all the components of a construction contract ready for execution from the outset. In the haste to start the works, gathering the complete suite of documents that constitute the contract is sometimes overlooked, or not collated promptly. At times, works even commence before negotiations are concluded or the agreement executed, typically under a letter of intent (see Practice Note: Letters of intent—construction). This is generally unwise; it is essential to finalise the contract and to ensure a full set of documents is compiled and readily accessible to each party at all times, to support efficient and consistent contract management and administration, and to ensure issues and potential disputes can be handled effectively and smoothly throughout the works. General considerations Construction contracts are often extensive and voluminous, containing numerous technical and commercial schedules as well as a lengthy main body of conditions and contract particulars. The precise documents required to create the construction contract will be shaped by...

This Practice Note sets out a comparison of headline aspects of the FIDIC 2017 and NEC4 suites, highlighting similarities and distinctions across their principal features. It specifically concentrates on the NEC4 Engineering and Construction Contract (ECC) and the FIDIC Red Book 2017 (Red Book), used primarily where the Contractor constructs to the Employer’s design in practice (although, where the scope includes any Contractor design, the Red Book accommodates this). For commentary on the 1999 edition of the FIDIC Red Book, see Practice Note: FIDIC 1999 and NEC4 contracts compared. Overall philosophy FIDIC FIDIC contracts are the leading international standard-form construction agreements. They are often described as ‘written by engineers, for engineers’. The suite is also recognised for balanced risk distribution, with liabilities generally allocated to the party best able to manage them (the EPC/Turnkey variant, widely referred to as the Silver Book, is something of an exception). As one would expect from documents devised by engineers, the Engineer has a central function in a number of the...

This Practice Note reviews the Conditions of Contract for Plant and Design Build 1999 (widely known as the FIDIC Yellow Book 1999) and the Conditions of Contract for EPC/Turnkey Projects 1999 (the FIDIC Silver Book 1999). Both are intended for scenarios where the Contractor, rather than the Employer, undertakes the design of the Works, but there are important differences, which are outlined in this Practice Note and considered at a high level. For deeper analysis of each form, see Practice Notes: FIDIC contracts—introduction to the Yellow Book 1999 and FIDIC contracts—introduction to the Silver Book 1999 for background and context. New editions of the Yellow and Silver Books were issued in December 2017. For more information, refer to Practice Note: FIDIC contracts 2017—what’s changed? [Archived]. These materials provide helpful orientation too. What types of projects are the contracts suitable for? Although both contracts envisage the Contractor being responsible for carrying out all, or the vast majority, of the design, and both are fixed price 'lump sum' contracts, that...

This Agreement is made on [ insert day and month ] 20[ insert year ] Parties [ Insert name of company in administration ] (in administration), being a company incorporated in [ England and Wales OR [ insert country of incorporation ] ], with registered number [ insert company number ], and having its registered office at [ insert address ] (the Seller), acting through its [ joint ] Administrator(s) [ Insert name of administrator(s) ] of [ insert name of firm ], whose registered office is at [ insert address of firm ] (the Administrator(s)) [ insert name of purchasing corporate entity ], a company duly incorporated in [ England and Wales OR [ insert country of incorporation ] ], with registered number [ insert company number ], and with its registered office address at [ insert address ] (the Buyer); and each of the Seller Administrator(s) and the Buyer being a Party, and together the Seller Administrator(s) and the Buyer being the...

The Architect shall: General responsibilities (Stages 0–7) Serve as Lead Consultant for the Project, including: Advising on the scopes of service for other Design Team members Advising on the need for further specialist consultants to complete the Project (and their scopes of service) Directing the other consultants forming the Design Team Co‑ordinating and integrating the Project’s design as a whole Arranging and chairing regular design meetings to progress the Project and ensuring minutes are produced and circulated afterwards Facilitating communication between the Client and the Design Team Either perform the Principal Designer role under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 and Building Regulations 2010 to uphold best practice at all times in respect of design safety, or liaise as required with the Principal Designer to uphold best practice at all times in respect of design safety Receive the Client’s instructions and information relating to the Project Report to...

[ To appear on the employer’s headed notepaper ] [ Insert employee name ] [ Insert employee address ] Confidential: for the addressee only [ Date ] Dear [ insert employee’s name ] Proposed change to your [ contract of employment OR [ enter details, eg holiday entitlement ] ] Further to our meeting on [ enter date ], [ Provide details of any earlier consultation process that has taken place. ] As outlined at that meeting, the Company has been reassessing its business priorities regarding [ enter details of any specific business areas that are relevant, eg sales support, business administration ] in view of [ enter details of the reason why the employer needs to make the proposed changes, eg the need to harmonise the terms and conditions of employees across its business, the substantial downturn in the business over recent months ]...