Post Contract Duties of a Quantity Surveyor

(a) Preparation of contract documents for signatures of both parties.

(b) Preparation of schedules of “Rate of Spend” during the construction period & advising on payments
to the contractors giving dates and amounts.
(c) Preparation of interim valuations and recommending for payments. (In Sri Lanka, checking
valuations submitted by contractors and recommending for payments.)
(d) Valuing variations and advising on the financial effect on them.
(e) Advising on the financial and contractual aspects of contractor’s claims.
(f) Preparation of cost analyses and giving cost information at all stages of the contract.
(g) Exercise control during the construction so that the cost is not exceeded without authority.
(h) Act with the Architect or Engineer to ensure that the financial provisions of the contract are
properly interpreted and applied so that the Client’s financial interest is safeguarded and that the
builder is paid a proper price for the work.

The contract
Under the general law of contract, when a party makes an offer to provide goods or services for some certain
consideration and the party to whom the offer is made accepts it, then, provided it does not involve any
illegal act, a contract which is enforceable at law exists.
In the construction industry, the offer is made by the contractor who tenders to carry out specified
construction works in return for a money payment and upon the acceptance of that offer by the client and
promoting the project, a binding contract comes in to being.

The contract documents

The number and nature of contract documents will normally correspond with those of the tender documents.
They may be some or all of the following.

1) Form of contract

This is the principle document, a printed Standard Form, such as one of the variants of the JCT Forms. The
JCT 98 Edition consists of three main parts:

i) The Articles of Agreement, which is the actual contract which the parties sign,
ii) The Conditions (sub-divided into five parts), which sets out the obligations and rights of the
parties and details of the conditions under which the contract is to be carried out,
iii) Supplemental provisions which sets out the rights and liabilities of the parties in regard to Value
Added Tax (VAT).
2) Bills of quantity
Any errors in the bills must be corrected in accordance with the selected option in the Code of Single
Stage Selective Tendering document and necessary adjustments to rates and prices must be