Are the changes made to the standard forms of contract lead to disputes? :

Abstract

In last few years, Sri Lankan construction industry turned a new page towards the construction projects, innovative, complex in nature and boosting its construction outputs. The inherent characteristics, nature and its capacity to contribute to the national economy, is making it progressively challenging than ever for professionals to cope with work challenges. Different professionals are involved in the construction projects and due to its complexity and other characteristics, various types of construction contracts are in practice. Main contract between the Employer and the Contractor is foremost and parties mostly prefer to follow standard forms of contracts so as to draft the rights and responsibilities of the parties via terms and conditions. Due to various driving factors, professionals who are drafting the construction contracts try to amend the standard forms but that are beyond the recommended changes by the originator. Overview to the research is presented in chapter I, describing the background, problem statement, aims and objectives of the research, draft research design and limitations of the research. An extensive literature review is presented in Chapter II in order to form a theoretical framework for the research. A quantitative approach was used for the achievement of the research objectives; hence questionnaire survey was conducted. Questionnaire was developed based on the findings obtained from the literature review and preliminary survey. Altogether, 62 questionnaires were distributed among respondents and among them 54 questionnaires were received. Among them 50 completed questionnaires were considered for the analysis. Findings of the research were presented in Chapter V in detail. Accordingly, the respondents have stated that the expected outcome of the changes made to the standard forms of Contract not achieved, but still the Employers tend to change the standard forms. Hence, it should be further studied in order to find the alternative ways to achieve the expected outcome without amendments to the standard forms beyond the changes recommended by the originator.