Where a subcontractor's own delay threatens late completion, may the main contractor put additional labour on site to help finish the works?
A contractor frustrated by a slow subcontractor may want to put extra labour on the work. Without an express contractual right, doing so is a breach; the safer routes are an express power or termination.
Not without an express contractual right: Sweatfield v Hathaway Roofing held that a contractor which brought outside labour onto the site to carry out part of a subcontractor's work, without a contractual power to do so, committed a breach of contract, so the safer routes are an express power in the subcontract or termination for failing to proceed regularly and diligently
Not without an express contractual right. Sweatfield v Hathaway Roofing held that a contractor which brought a gang from another subcontractor onto the site to carry out part of a subcontractor's work, without a contractual power to do so, committed a breach of contract of great gravity. A contractor that supplements or replaces a subcontractor's labour by self-help therefore risks a claim for breach. The safer routes are to draft an express power into the subcontract allowing extra labour to be brought on if progress falls short, and, where the subcontractor is failing to proceed regularly and diligently, to use the termination right the subcontract usually provides rather than acting unilaterally on site.
| The temptation | Bringing extra labour onto a slow subcontractor's work |
| Sweatfield v Hathaway | Doing so without a contractual right is a breach |
| Express power | Draft a right to supplement labour into the subcontract |
| Termination | Use the regularly-and-diligently termination right instead |
| Records | Keep progress records and note any counter-allegation |
The rest of this solution is for members
Fifty of the two hundred contractual solutions are free to read. This is one of the remaining hundred and fifty, which Premium and Pro carry.
See what Premium includesAlready a member? Sign in