Sector focus
Your work is governed to the millimetre and your paperwork is not. Subcontractor terms, indemnities, payment provisions and variation clauses, reviewed or drafted by someone who understands what a licensed removal job actually involves.
The problem
Licensed removal operates under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, with HSE licensing, notified plans of work and four-stage clearance. The contracts that sit over all of it are usually the main contractor's standard terms, issued on a take-it-or-leave-it basis, and signed because the job starts on Monday.
Those terms are where the money is lost. Five issues come up again and again.
Asbestos liability is frequently excluded or sub-limited in public liability cover. An unqualified indemnity in favour of the main contractor can commit you well beyond what your policy will actually answer for, and nobody notices until a claim.
Asbestos removal from a structure is generally a construction operation, so Part II of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 applies. Payment notices, pay less notices and the right to adjudicate are statutory, and non-compliant terms are replaced by the Scheme. Most contractors never use any of it.
The survey understates what is there more often than not. If the contract does not give you a clear entitlement when additional material is found, the additional work becomes your cost rather than a variation.
Enclosures sit idle while another trade finishes. Without an express standing time provision and a mechanism for extension of time, the delay is absorbed by you and the programme is still held against you.
Who holds the risk between completion of removal and the analyst's certificate of reanalysis, how retention is released, and what happens if clearance fails for reasons outside your control.
Before you sign
A review before signature costs a fraction of arguing about the same clause eighteen months later. Most reviews come back within three working days.
Enquire about contractor termsWhat you get
Not a marked-up PDF with forty comment bubbles. A short written note setting out what the agreement commits you to, where the risk sits, and which clauses to push back on first, followed by the drafting itself if that is what you have instructed.
Review from£295
One set of main contractor terms, with a written risk note and a list of the amendments worth asking for.
Drafting from£450
Your own subcontractor terms, drafted to your commercial position and reusable across jobs.
Framework agreements and multi-party arrangements are quoted on scope. Every fee is fixed and agreed in writing before any work starts.
Scope
We draft, review, analyse and negotiate the contracts. We do not advise on health and safety compliance, we do not prepare plans of work or notifications, and we are not a substitute for your licensing obligations or your competent person under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012.
We also do not conduct litigation or represent anyone at adjudication or in court. Where a dispute has reached that point we will say so and tell you what kind of practice you need.