Services

In circumstances where Developers do not wish to appoint project managers but seek assurance that their professional team is firing on all cylinders NS Solving is in a position to:

• Advise on team selection
• Assist in negotiating fees
• Ensure timeous task sign off by individual professional
• Assist is assessing design in terms of costs
• Assist professionals in decision making and preventing contractor claims for delays
• Support the professional team with tricky contractual challenges

The business of Development in the built environment is fraught with risk and it is the management of the multitude risks that separate successful projects from less successful or worst still, failed projects.

Those involved from conception to implementation of a new Development, in the main, manage risk on an informal basis.  Developers assess the market, review the design and viability studies, make recommendation to their boards and obtain approvals to proceed with a project.  Once the project has been initiated risk is managed, largely, reactively, not pro actively and still in the majority of projects is an informal basis.

Reviewing risk on a more formal basis provides indicators of where attention is required to minimise risk before potential problems arise.

Risk and value are interlinked.

Our recommendation is to commission a formal risk review at the Development concept stage, which will culminate in a comprehensive risk report identifying areas that are “good to go”, “pause, require additional work”, “stop, high risk requires serious input prior to proceeding.”  This report would then be reviewed and updated on a monthly basis throughout the project.

Having access to a comprehensive risk review report would assist in the following areas:

• Provides a development check list
• Assists boards, committees in reviewing and approving a development
• Assists financial institutions in making funding decisions
• Provides a management tool for the project delivery team
• Provides an early warning system for potential problems
• Allow time to take corrective action once a risk is identified
• By sharing with the professional team, will assist the professionals in covering their basis where a risk is highlighted in their portfolio.

A comprehensive risk review will incorporate the following:

• Review of Developers brief
• Review of Consultants , and their terms of appointment
• Review of documentation and proposed contractual arrangements
• Review of tender risks

Review of contractual claims

Alternative dispute resolution – ADR – is presently a fashionable phrase in the legal world.  ADR procedures have emerged as a result of the traditional legal system not being able to provide services demanded in a wide field ranging from labour to construction disputes.

The term dispute management embraces ADR techniques and recognises that not all disputes are capable of resolution but there is a need for sound, efficient management of disputes and many benefits to be derived therefrom.

Any dispute should be assessed by an independent party far enough removed from the dispute to be entirely objective.  The assessment should lead to the adoption of an appropriate management procedure to bring the dispute to finality.

Disputes may be classified into two broad categories, i.e. those requiring resolution and those requiring settlement.

Resolving Disputes

In order to resolve a dispute the parties must firstly have a genuine desire to do so by following a structured (managed) interest based procedure.  Interest based procedures are less rigid than rights based procedures and have as their underlying philosophy compromise, persuasive argument, recognition of factors which are fair and reasonable under given circumstances and not necessarily applying the letter of the law.  These procedures have the advantage of maintaining relationships and not destroying them as can occur in the more confrontational arbitration and court processes.  These procedures promote a win/win situation for the disputing parties.

Settling Disputes

Settlement of disputes is attained by an imposed and binding ruling from an independent third party, i.e. an arbitration tribunal or court of law.  This process is invariably rights based.  The parties rely upon the strict application of the terms of their contractual relationship whether these terms are fair and reasonable or not (after all, once two parties agree to the specific terms of a contract and sign their acceptance thereof, they should not be entitled to cry foul at a later stage).  Dispute settlement is confrontational and usually places the parties in a win/lose situation which may destroy long term relationships.

In both dispute resolution and dispute settlement the rules of natural justice should be observed and effective, quick procedures sought to minimise the costs (direct and indirect) and time in the dispute management process.

These services extend to the entire range of quantity surveying services available to suitably sized projects in addition to Joint Venture collaborations where determined by project size and appropriate collaborations.

Interaction with development teams to assist in project initiation and to provide bespoke solutions to complicated challenges that may arise on complex developments