The practically of appointing third party in the rectification of defective works

Abstract

Defective works are synonymous in construction and engineering projects and have always been contentious between the employer and contractor. Defective works are usually inevitable as construction industry is unique in nature. Contractor is under obligation to rectify discoverable defective works during defect liability period in which he has to physically return to the site to rectify all the defective works on his own expenses. Although the obligation to rectify the defects and the consequences for the failure to do so was clearly stated in the contract, there have been evidences that contractor has persistently failed to fulfill such requirements. Pursuant to this issue, the appointment of third-party contractor to rectify the unattended defective works seems to be a common practice nowadays. However, the significance of this approach has never been revealed in the aspect of its implementation and practicality. Therefore, this study aims to determine the practicality of the third-party appointment to rectify the defects in the aspect of cost, time and procedures. Five (5) projects in Iskandar Puteri, Johor, which have experienced with the third-party appointment to rectify unattended defective works, were selected as the project case studies. After analyzing the collected data, the findings suggested that the appointment of third-party contractor to rectify unattended defective works have made accurate cost assessment for the remedial works. In terms of time, it is applicable at any time upon the original contractor fails to rectify the defective works and in terms of procedure, it is a convenient process to be applied by all parties, hence it is a practical approach to resolve the defective work issues. However, there are also issues and constraints in implementing the appointment, where the most observable one is during the implementation stage. The problem encountered are due to the appointment of an incompetent third-party contractor; the difficulties to manage type of defects; time and manpower constraint to attend the works; series of third-party appointment; disruption to the end users’ operations and also failure to rectify the root cause of defects.