Who is responsible for project delays?

The construction contract should include relevant clauses: clauses regarding delays in the project timeline caused by Party A.

The contractor’s project team submitted a \"Memorandum on Schedule Delay\" to the IPMT (the management team composed of the project management contractor and the client’s representatives), but the IPMT rejected it, stating that it would advance the project according to the schedule required by the client, and any delay in the work would be subject to evaluation based on KPIs. If there are issues with the land, you should turn to the construction party; that’s within their scope of responsibility. It was submitted to the constructor, who also rejected it, stating that the overall project schedule is managed by IPMT and that they are not responsible for it. What can be done? ?

This post was last edited by Shutong on 2023-1-2 at 23:35. I will discuss the organizational management of time extension claims abroad. In international project management, claims include cost claims and time extension claims, and both types of claims involve various departments of the project. Time extension claims are mainly handled by the Planning Department, the Contracting Department, or the Legal Department. The Planning Department is responsible for preparing various construction plans for the project, monitoring progress on site, handling correspondence with the client or subcontractors regarding time-related issues, analyzing delays in project progress, preparing weekly and monthly reports, submitting time extension claim reports, as well as collecting and organizing relevant documents ； The contracts department primarily provides contractual support for submitting time extension claims to the planning department, works together with this department to refine the claim reports, and analyzes and submits cost claims related to those time extension requests ； The legal department provides legal support and guidance for engineering claims. Compared to domestic projects, the planning department in international projects is an independent unit that is on the same level as the project’s technical department, contracts department, engineering department, and safety and quality department; it reports directly to the project manager. The project department will determine the size of the planning team based on factors such as the project’s contract value, building area, and the complexity of project management. Typically, one planning manager or supervisor is appointed, with additional planning engineers assigned as needed.

This post was last edited by Shutong on 2023-1-2 at 23:47. Reasons on the part of the project owner: Firstly, in order to maximize the returns on their investment, project owners often fail to set scientific and reasonable project timelines based on the actual conditions of the project. Meanwhile, construction companies, in an effort to increase their chances of winning bids, sign contracts with the project owners despite knowing that they are unable to complete the work as required. As a result, the actual construction process inevitably fails to be completed on time, leading to delays. Secondly, during the early stages of project construction, the corresponding design drawings and construction plans were not carefully reviewed, which led to significant changes in various construction phases such as decoration and installation. This inevitably results in delays in the project timeline. Lastly, the fact that the project owner is unable to provide construction companies with sufficient funding in a timely manner can also lead to delays in the project timeline due to a lack of funds on the part of the construction companies. Furthermore, although there are supervision companies at the construction site to oversee the entire construction process, the current order in the construction industry remains rather chaotic, and it is possible that these supervision companies might accept bribes. As a result, some project owners do not fully delegate authority and instead send their own supervision departments to the construction site, which leads to an excessive number of oversight entities. When problems arise, these different departments tend to shift responsibility to one another, preventing issues from being resolved promptly and effectively, and thus affecting the smooth progress of the project. On the other hand, since project owners are different from construction companies and do not fully understand the specific management practices used by those companies, such an approach does not help improve the overall level of project management in the industry.

It’s normal to get no response from the developer; the construction party has a contract with the general contractor, so one should turn to the general contractor!

It must be the responsibility of the constructor; in the end, it all boils down to lawsuits

This analysis is not very comprehensive and is even somewhat biased.

In this case, it is an EPC general contractor.

There are many ways to resolve differences and disputes, and going to court as a way of escalating conflicts is a rather low-level approach to solving them.

This post was last edited by Suspected law-abiding citizen on 2023-1-3 at 15:44. This issue is actually overcomplicated; one should seek compensation for the delay in construction from the party with whom the general contractor has signed a contract. There’s no need to look for IPMT at all; they only have a contract relationship with the construction party, and no contract relationship with the general contractor, so it’s impossible to find them. Typical construction contracts specify the rights and responsibilities of both parties, including clauses such as the contractor’s obligation to complete land approval procedures on time so that the general contractor can commence work. The general contractor simply needs to keep proper records of evidence in accordance with the terms specified in the contract. The ‘Memorandum of Delay in Construction Period’ you mentioned is just one piece of evidence; there are many other pieces of evidence that can be used, such as the documents confirming the official start of work issued by IPMT, as well as the documents related to the land agreement with the project owner, and so on. As for the letters from IPMT urging you to expedite work, simply reply with a formal email stating that the contractor failed to provide the necessary conditions for work to begin on time. It doesn’t matter if they acknowledge it or not; the important thing is to keep these records as evidence for future claims. You won’t be making claims to IPMT, as there is no contract relationship between the general contractor and IPMT; instead, claims regarding the delayed timeline should be made to the contractor itself. It doesn’t matter whether the constructor accepts your reasons for the claim or not. As the general contractor, it is sufficient to indicate who is responsible for the delay in each letter sent to urge progress; they can only make demands, and the contractor should keep all evidence – if they dare to deduct money, then let’s take it to court. Of course, it is advisable to avoid going to court. China is a society based on interpersonal relationships; communicate more privately with the person in charge of the construction party. Given such an obvious fault on their part, generally the construction party will not insist on arguing with you unless they are deliberately looking for trouble.