Contract administration and superintendency

The problem

The superintendent role is two jobs in one contract. Part of the time the superintendent acts as the owner's agent. Part of the time it must act honestly and impartially between the parties. Standard-form contracts say so. Plenty of superintendents behave as though only the first half exists.

That is not a technicality. A superintendent's assessments become the record. When the job goes bad, that record is what a court or an adjudicator reads. Assessments made to suit the owner in month four are the owner's biggest exposure in year two.

How this works

Ambit takes the superintendent or contract administration role and runs it against the contract as written. Claims are assessed on their entitlement and their evidence. Determinations state the clause relied on and the reason. Where a claim is good, it is certified. Where it is not, the reason is written down at the time, not reconstructed later.

This is the boring version of the job, and it is the one that holds.

Contracts covered

AS 4000, AS 2124, AS 4902 and AS 4300; the Victorian government and major-client amended forms; and heavily bespoke contracts, which is most of the market above a certain value. Amended standard forms need reading line by line — the amendments are where the risk moved.

What you get

• Progress claim assessment and payment certification
• Extension of time determinations with reasons recorded
• Variation valuation and directions
• Notices issued on time and in the form the contract requires
• Defects and practical completion assessment
• A contract file that a third party can follow without explanation

Call when

• You need a superintendent and nobody internal can act impartially.
• You are certifying claims and are not confident the assessments would survive a challenge.
• Notices under your contract are going out late, or not at all.