Fundamentals of Building Contract Management

This book is aimed at practitioners in the construction industry and tertiary students of construction management, civil engineering, building, quantity surveying and architecture. Its purpose is to inform the reader about a range of delivery methods and contracts used in the construction industry, and provide guidance in their management. This is achieved by stripping the legal mystique and mumbo jumbo from contracts and exposing the basic logic. The book is neither a legal casebook nor is intended to provide advice on solving a particular problem. It should assist the reader to find the best contracts for a particular project and having chosen them, to administer them efficiently. Although the book draws on the Australian legal cases and conditions of contract, the interpretations are largely general for application in most jurisdictions. In three parts, the book first describes what contracts are and how projects are delivered, followed by the discussion on how contracts are administered and lastly it explains how claims, defects and disputes arising from contracts are managed.