Construction Lawyers in Singapore

We act for contractors, subcontractors, consultants, developers and owners on construction and engineering disputes in Singapore and the region, and on the contracts that produce them.

Construction disputes are unlike most commercial disputes in one respect that governs everything else: the project usually has to keep going while the argument runs. That is why the law provides a fast payment route, and why the tactical question is often not who is right but who can afford to wait.

Security of payment: getting paid without waiting for the argument

The Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act exists because subcontractors were funding projects they had not been paid for. It gives a statutory right to progress payment and a fast adjudication process to enforce it, on a pay now, argue later basis.

The sequence is short and unforgiving:

• A payment claim is served, in the form and at the time the Act and the contract require
• A payment response is due from the respondent within the period allowed. A respondent who does not respond in time is severely limited in what it can raise later
• A short dispute settlement period follows, during which the parties can resolve matters
• An adjudication application is then made, and an adjudicator decides quickly

An adjudication determination can be enforced like a judgment, and payment is due whether or not the underlying dispute is eventually decided the same way. The losing party can pursue the merits afterwards in arbitration or in court.

Every step here has a deadline, and the deadlines are the mechanism rather than an administrative detail. Claims fail on service and timing far more often than on merit. If a payment claim has been served on you, or you are about to serve one, that is the moment to take advice rather than after an adjudicator has ruled.

The disputes that recur

Delay and extension of time. Who caused the delay, whether an extension is due, and what liquidated damages are payable if it is not. These turn on records and on programme analysis, and they are won by the party that kept contemporaneous documents.

Disruption and loss and expense. Harder to prove than delay and frequently pleaded badly. The claim needs a causal link that survives scrutiny rather than a global figure.

Variations. Whether instructed work was a variation or was always within scope, and whether the instruction complied with the contract. A great many variation claims fail on process rather than substance.

Defects. What was required, what was built, whether the defects liability period has been engaged, and who bears the cost of rectification.

Termination. The highest-risk step in any construction contract. Termination that does not follow the contract to the letter can turn the terminating party into the party in breach.

Performance bonds. Whether a call can be restrained, which in Singapore turns on narrow grounds and moves quickly. If a call has been made, the clock is measured in days.

Consultant liability. Claims against architects, engineers and quantity surveyors for professional negligence.

The contracts underneath

We advise on the standard forms used here, on bespoke contracts, and on the subcontracts that sit beneath them, where the risk allocated by the main contract is meant to flow down and frequently does not.

The provisions that decide disputes are known in advance: the payment terms, the extension of time machinery, the variation procedure, the liquidated damages rate, the retention, the bond, and the dispute resolution clause. Getting them right at the outset is far cheaper than arguing about them under pressure.

Where a construction dispute is decided

Adjudication, for payment, fast and interim.

Arbitration, which most construction contracts specify, and which suits technical disputes with expert evidence. See our international arbitration page.

The courts, where the contract provides for them or where enforcement is needed. Our civil litigation team runs those.

Mediation, which resolves more construction disputes than any of the above, and which works best when both sides know what their case is actually worth.

We work with programme, quantum and technical experts as a matter of course, because construction disputes are decided on evidence of that kind rather than on argument alone.

Before the dispute: the project itself

Where a project is being put together rather than fought over, our development, planning and land page covers acquisition, approvals and the structure the building contract sits inside.

Construction disputes in Singapore: frequently asked questions