Guy and Jason join Carly Thorpe, Partner at law firm, Walker Morris. Together they take a look at ‘Smash and Grab’ (also known as true value or technical) adjudications. 

What is a smash-and-grab adjudication? Why do they arise? What does the construction act say? What do contracts say and is it possible to improve the system as it stands, using the contract? Will ‘the scheme’ step in if the construction contract doesn’t say anything about the mechanisms for securing payment and arranging amounts due in a construction project? 

What happens if there’s a ‘fallback’ or second application stage? Is that good for the construction project and the parties in the project? 

What does an application for payment look like or need to look like? And what about contractual language – what do all the different terms – certification, payments, sums, true valuation, and other jargon mean? 

What happens next if you lose a smash-and-grab or ‘true value’ adjudication? Can you recover from a technical adjudication in, for example, a subsequent adjudication? 

What about payment? How successful is enforcement and is it easy to actually get paid when an adjudication decision has been reached? And who pays the fees of the adjudicator – does the referring party have to pay those up front? 

Find out the answer to all these questions and more in this episode of the Overford podcast. For more on Smash and Grab, read this article, and as always, if you need help just get in touch with the team today.