Procurement solicitors

Simply put, the term procurement refers to the process of buying goods and/or services from the construction team.

In construction that typically means the process of choosing a suitable method to obtain the necessary works, materials, goods, and services to complete a development.

On a typical building project, the choice will be between either the “traditional” or “design and build” procurement route. It is worth highlighting there are numerous other procurement routes too, which may be more appropriate in a given scenario.

Traditional procurement

Some of the key features of traditional procurement are as follows :-

• The design and the construction of the project are kept separate.

• The employer appoints the professional team of consultants, this may be an architect only on a small project, and it is the consultants who design the project.

• The employer, quite separately, appoints the building contractor, who constructs the scheme only.

• The architect or contract administrator administers the building contract on behalf of the employer.

• The design process must be carried out early, so the contractor can then tender its price against the documents worked up by the employer’s team (e.g., a specification, design drawings, bills of quantities etc.,), all meaning the overall programme for the project will likely be longer.

• Given the employer must supply detailed documents, there is less uncertainty in the construction phase; the employer has set out its exact requirements and the design is largely complete. This also means, on the proviso there is no change or unexpected risk events, there should be greater cost certainty too.

Design and build procurement

Some of the key features of design and build procurement are as follows:

• The contractor undertakes both the design and construction of a scheme.

• The employer provides a document known as the "employer's requirements" and the contractor replies to this in a document known as the "contractor's proposals"; together these documents set out the scheme to be built.

• The employer will often engage consultants to help with some initial designs for the "employer's requirements". Thereafter, the consultants then move ‘contractor side’ (via a process known as novation). This is understandable, given the contractor will be liable for working up the design i.e., they want the consultants on ‘their team’. This means the employer will not have direct control over the consultants during the detailed design phase. This can be very unattractive for some clients.

• In addition, the contractor may appoint design sub-contractors and/or specialist sub-consultants to help it carry out design for specific aspects of the work. The contractor will remain liable to the employer for the design of the project, however given their involvement in the works, the employer may want an obligation on the contractor that it must provide collateral warranties from each and all of these designers.

• The employer appoints a consultant to administer the building contract, known as the employer’s agent.