Legal Risk Management For Fagg’s Mitre Store

Compliance with Building and Construction Act

Discuss about the Legal Risk Management for Fagg’s Mitre Store.

Fagg’s Mitre store is one of hardware stores which are under renovations on its interior as well as the exterior design and make of the outer warehouse. The project majors on the extension as well as some key refurbishment. According to the structural design of the contractor on the proposed design and blueprint, there be renovations on the hardware and garden centre, which will be done using timber. Consequently, there shall be an extension on the east side of the wing, which is the deliveries received and the dispatch area, using wood. According to the structural and contractor’s blueprint, there shall be renovations on the roof of the hardware on the pieces where they have been primarily affected. Extensions are also expected to be done on the ceiling bearing in mind that, there shall be extensions on the infrastructure, on the ground.

From the formation of the idea in the mindset of oneself or a group of investors to the finalisation of construction of the being that existed in the minds of them, laws and regulations have to be followed to the later with all parties involved taking step by step. These rules and regulations lie under the construction laws, which is a branch of law which mainly deals with matters of building construction, engineering and other related fields. The law extends its role to covers the legal process that includes negligence, contract, liens and sureties (Cooke, et al, 2013). In Australia like any other country has legislations that would contribute and influence significantly the building and construction of the project at hand which is the Fagg store. This because they asset to govern the entire renovation and extension process, the relations of the employees, the safety and health of the employees as well as the disputes.

The owner of the store will together with the architect submit the drafts of the extension and renovation process to the national building and construction department. At this juncture, the owner and the architect would be respecting the act of the federal building and construction act. The law stipulates that after the owner together with the articles has finalised on the draft of the plan, they will have to submit the blueprint to the department. At this point, if the design is approved by the officials then the owner may proceed to look for the builder. If the blueprint is not approved, then the owner together with the architect’s reviews on the design should submit same to the building department at the state offices for recommendations. Compliance with this law is paramount since the board cannot approve a building without the structural capacity to hold the desired number of people and stock that will be stored in it. Compliance with the act is also significance since the owner of the business will receive a blueprint of an approved building and the extensions hence no worries for future collapse.

Tendering and Procurement Act

The other and very vital law to consider doing the process of building and construction is the tendering and procurement act. Although this is so much in the corporate business, in this case, the owner of the store has to follow all the laid down statutes and laws that control the tendering and procurement process. According to the act, the owner has the sole right out directly choosing the contractor, or by requesting all the contractors who feel they are fit for the position (Cooke, et al, 2013). The owner should at this point engage the public building and construction company so as to be able to distinguish and choose the best contractor fit for the renovations and extensions. In many cases, the social construction and building department will advocate consideration of the first contractor who did the first work so as to ensure they have a preview of the housing planning and the previous plans. The board will also give the bid to the highest bidder who has a lot of refines and completed jobs.

Some of the key legislation regarding such construction of the store includes the building and construction industry payment act. The act 2004 ensures that all the parties that are involved in the contractual chain of the whole development process are awarded the sufficient protection so as to receive the payment for the work they have undertaken.  According to this law governing the construction period, then the owner and the contract who have agreed to work on the renovation of the store has to make sure that they negotiate on the terms of services and payment claims, schedules as well as periods for the payment disbursement (Forbes, et al, 2011). This is a substantive act, and law one has to consider at the early stages of the project so as to avert any case of the owner failing to pay for the work which has been done as well as the contractor failing to complete the work as expected and has been paid. There have been several cases in Australia where employers who offered contracts to some unscrupulous contractors who after receiving a lump of the money regarding the project at hand they never complete the construction of the building at a health risk. It is also important to have the relevant documents regarding as per the requirement of the building and construction industry payments act 2004, this is so at averting any incidence where the client would ask for escalation or in the case where the employee may request for escalation. The documents that are as per to the standards of the act will perform as prove and will cancel any attempt by both parties to work for escalation (Forbes, et al, 2011).

Building and Construction Industry Payment Act

Another legislation that is of much significance to the construction and renovations of this store is the sustainable planning act. Being a replacement of integrated planning Act 1997, the law highly seeks to manage any effect of the development on the environment (Walker, 2015). The law ensures that all the renovations and extensions to be carried out one the parts of the store are up to date with the regulations and code of environment and that there no adverse effects resulting from these developments. The law also seeks to ensure that the renovations and extensions process is up to the standard of the environmental guidelines and that there is no effect on the people living next to the store. The sustainable planning act is a significant act to review primarily for the owner of the warehouse so as to avert any scenario that would result after the construction of the extensions and renovations only to be told that the store is the health hazard and an environmental threat so it can only be demolished. At this point. The own may feel discouraged.

The other key legislation is the work health and safety act 2011. The law allows the officials who have the permit to enter into any building and construction site immediately if they feel that there is a contravention occurring and has to provide a notice of their entry as soon as it is possible. This is a relevant act since the government will be able to monitor the process of the construction and renovations is up to standard. This would be a move and an advantage to the owner of the store since he or she will be assured of quality work in a relatively quick time when the contractors know they are being watched (Walker, 2015).

The contractor of this project should also ensure that they uphold and adhere to the building and construction regulations on the plumbing and electrical installation in the store. This is so as to make sure that there is no event that the store will have electrical or plumbing problems.

In any building and construction process of a residential and commercial building like the warehouse in our question, one needs to get into forms of contract. There are several types of contract that one may engage in which includes among others the lump sum contract, cost plus fixed fee contract and the lump sum and scheduled report among others. In this renovation, an extension of the store, the owner of the store could use the lump sum contract or the lump sum and scheduled contract.

The lump sum contract spells out that the owner of the store agrees to the payment of a contractor specified amounts of money in a lump sum after the completion of work without any cost breakdown (McNeil, et al, 2015).

This is a very high-risk contract as compared to the others since the contractor may do shoddy work or even fail to build as per the requirements of the blueprint. By this then the owner will be at a possible end to lose his or her funds to pay incomplete work.

The other contract best for this is the lump sum and scheduled contract. According to this contract, the owner decides with the contractor on the total amount of pay he or she is going to pay him upon completion of the store. However the pay in broken-down as per the measurements (McNeil, et al, 2015).

This type of contract has negative implications on the contractor since he or she might have spent a lot of time working at the same store but happens to complete fewer measurements, hence making lower amounts of money as compared to the other lump sum contract.

References

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Brook, M., 2012. Estimating and tendering for construction work. Routledge.

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Chapman, R.J., 2011. Simple tools and techniques for enterprise risk management. John Wiley & Sons.

Cooke, B. and Williams, P., 2013. Construction planning, programming and control. John Wiley & Sons.

Friedman, L.M., 2011. Contract law in America: a social and economic case study. Quid Pro Books.

Forbes, L.H. and Ahmed, S.M., 2011. Modern construction. CRC Press,.

Harris, F. and McCaffer, R., 2013. Modern construction management. John Wiley & Sons.

Walker, A., 2015. Project management in construction. John Wiley & Sons.

Mahler, T., 2010. Legal risk management. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Oslo.

McNeil, A.J., Frey, R. and Embrechts, P., 2015. Quantitative risk management: Concepts, techniques and tools. Princeton university press.