One of the most contentious issues in building contracts is mechanism to ensure that the contractor is guaranteed payment for extras, and that the owner is guaranteed not to pay for something that is not an extra. It would be simple to state these propositions in a building contract, but they usually aren’t there. However, […]

In Mascareignes Sterling Co Ltd v Chang Cheng Esquares Co Ltd (Mauritius), the Privy Council of the United Kingdom recently set out some helpful principles to define the entitlement of a contractor to extra payment under a fixed price contract. The Privy Council held that the power to award extra payments under a fixed price […]

In Ross-Clair v. Canada (Attorney General), the Ontario Court of Appeal has recently held that a contractor’s claim for extras and changed circumstances was ineffective because it contained inadequate particulars of the claim. The Extras/Changed Circumstances clause The changed circumstances clause in the construction contract stated in part as follows: 35.4 A written claim referred […]