Scenario
You are a surveyor on the staff of a well-known established consultancy ‘Stuart Lawrence LLP’.
Your client, Airports Group PLC (AGP), is the owner and operator of the ‘Only Sky Hotel’, a large,
luxury airport hotel located in City of Liverpool, UK.
Your client recently appointed a contractor known as High Point PLC (HPP) to undertake a major
refurbishment of the Only Sky Hotel.
A brief pre-commencement site meeting was held to discuss the works, but no contract was
formalised between AGP and HPP. As HPP have worked with your client previously without issue,
a contract was not considered to be necessary.
The contractor had progressed works to the satisfaction of your client until a recent design team
meeting held midway through the project. At that meeting AGP confirmed that as HPP had
overvalued their previous application for payment, your client intends to deduct the overpayment
from the contractors next payment application. At the same meeting, HPP responded to suggest
that far from overvaluing the previous payment application, your client had in fact significantly
undervalued the same application.
Senior surveyors from both organisations hold urgent talks to try to rectify the situation but fail to
make progress on this issue and a wide range of other complex technical points relating to structural
alterations and mechanical and electrical services. HPP threatens to suspend all works imminently if
the matters cannot be resolved within the next one to two months. The parties are now engaged in
an ongoing dispute.
Your client cannot tolerate a significant delay to completion of the refurbishment of the hotel. AGP is
under financial pressure to re-open the luxury hotel for the holiday season and has been receiving
negative publicity on social media and in local press.
To move forward, your client considers that their only remaining option is to take matters to court in
order to obtain a decision on the sums in dispute. Your client seeks your advice.
Task
Use your knowledge of the law of contract and dispute resolution methods to write a report that
advises your client, AGP, on the enforceability of their agreement with HPP together with the most
appropriate method/s that could be used to resolve the points in dispute between the parties.
Your report must provide legal advice and you should:
a. use legal principles to outline the elements that must be present to form a legally binding
contract;
b. use your knowledge of contract formation to critically examine whether an agreement has
been formed between the parties using appropriate legal principles;
c. examine the scenario facts to reach reasoned conclusions as to the most effective form(s) of
dispute resolution available to AGP in the context of the presented scenario
Grading guidance
You will have met the criteria for Threshold and will have demonstrated good knowledge of the
relevant legal principles of the law of contract and methods of dispute resolution which will be
explained logically with a sound level of critical analysis to reach reasoned conclusions. Legal and
academic sources will be mostly referenced in accordance with the recommended guidelines.
Referencing will be mostly complete