Fair Risk Allocation – When Reality Differs from Expectations

All users of FIDIC standard forms of contract!

I prepared for you on 🗓️ January 29th at 10:00 Central European Time (Bratislava/Vienna/Prague) 🗓️ a webinar:

⚠️ Fair Risk Allocation: When Reality Differs from Expectations ⚠️

When I prepare a tender documents for any construction project, an investor (employer) usually assumes what conditions exist underground. The problem of unforeseeable physical conditions is not limited only to what is sub-surface. Fair risk allocation can also apply to renovations, where a certain state of condition of a building is assumed, but the actual state is only revealed after uncovering/opening up.

The Employer’s assumptions are based on site investigations. However, these are rarely up-to-date or comprehensive. Sometimes the Employer states in the tender dossier only: ⚠️ „problematic geological conditions may be expected“. ⚠️ Such a lame statement, together with the definition of what is unforeseeable (🔤 unforeseeable 🔤 means not reasonably foreseeable by an experienced contractor by the date of submission of the tender), transfers the risk in fact to the Contractor. 🤔 Is it fair? „Is it in line with the 3E principle?

📖 Foreseeability shall not be binary. Rather, the foreseeability shall be the amount or extent to which the ground in question is expected to be encountered.

❓How to set up the contract conditions to make it fair? ⚖️

📋 We will review:
✅ the concept about dealing with unforeseeable physical conditions in the 🔴 Red, 🟡 Yellow, ⚪ Silver and 🟢 Emerald Books so that we know what adjustment options we have
✅ existing courts‘ rulings regarding Unforeseeable Physical Conditions
✅ what is unforeseeable
✅ what is reasonability
✅ Subclauses 4.10, 4.11, 4.12 of the FIDIC Rainbow Suite + Emerald Book

📅 Date: January 29th, 2025,
🕐 Time: 10:00 (CET)
💶 Price: €50 including VAT
💻 Format: Online via Zoom
⏱️ Duration: 60 minutes + discussion
📧 Registration: peter@kotvan.sk