A hard way to earn £2

摘要

What happens to works unfinished at partial possession? If an employer has gone into partial possession because it urgently needs to fit out the building, what does the contract say about finishing off the works? In most cases it says nothing. In JCT80 it says nothing, which is partly why Birse Construction and Eastern Telegraph found themselves locked in litigation several years down the track. ET commissioned the construction of a training college that in 1995 won the building category award in Concrete magazine. Despite this accolade, there were problems, particularly over snagging. ET had gone into partial possession of parts of the building before it had achieved practical completion, so that they could be fitted out before students arrived. But once ET was in occupation, access was difficult for Birse. Practical completion was reached in December 1993 and in March 1994 there was an agreement between ET and Birse intended to resolve remaining issues such as snagging and retention.