Contemporaneous records in construction claim

Abstract

A claim is a proposition or protestation of the right, without regard to whether rightfully or wrongfully, employed by the party in either a contract or at position of law, for the compensation upon the infringement of the right. However, disputes always arisen from the devoid of the information submitted in claims or mismanagement of the information. A contemporaneous record might be useful in the claim preparation or substantiation. In local context, the onus of keeping the contemporaneous records is not expressly provided in the standard form of contract, such as PAM 2006 or PWD 2010. In an earlier case, keeping of contemporaneous record had been indicated as a precedent condition in FIDIC Red Book 1987 whereas it had been redefined in release of FIDIC Red Book 1999. A total of eleven previous court cases were analysed in order to identify the various requirements of contemporaneous record or documentation under the construction claim. The two oversea leading court cases were used as supporting cases to the local cases. Claims could be categorized into two, but merely cost claim requires contemporaneous record in court. The courts had emphasized in their decisions on several contemporaneous records which could be summarized as correspondence letter and notification for claim, contract documents (including Bills of Quantities, Letter of Acceptance, Drawings, Specification), endorsed Variation Order, Site Records, Progress Reports, Photographs, Invoices, and List of Defects. The documents referred by the court deemed to be timeously recorded, sufficient information indicating the instruction or direction, and acknowledge received by the parties. It is worth noting that the contemporaneous records in claim shall not merely be originated from the contractors, the records or the substantiation shall rely on the records or knowledge of contractors and consultants, as well as the employer.