Construction Law: FIDIC, NEC, PSSCOC, SIA Claims & Notices

Analyze construction contracts, claims, notices, payment timelines, risk allocation, and dispute pathways across major standard forms, with strong international and Singapore-focused coverage.

Why install this?

• ✅ Avoid missed notice deadlines and time-bar mistakes
• ✅ Structure claims and EOT submissions faster
• ✅ Compare contract risk and obligations more consistently
• ✅ Prompts for the correct contract form and edition before analysis

Who this skill is for

This skill is built for:

• Construction lawyers
• In-house counsel
• Contract managers
• Commercial managers
• Quantity surveyors
• Claims consultants
• Project managers

What this skill does

Use this skill to:

• Identify the correct contract form and edition before analysis
• Review clauses for obligations, rights, risks, and time-bars
• Generate notice calendars and obligations registers
• Draft structured claim, EOT, variation, and payment templates
• Compare FIDIC forms across key topics
• Calculate Singapore SOP Act payment timelines
• Assess delay events, concurrency, EOT exposure, and LD risk
• Triage dispute resolution pathways

Supported forms and frameworks

• FIDIC
• NEC
• PSSCOC
• SIA Conditions
• JCT
• Singapore SOP Act workflows

Why this skill matters

Construction outcomes often turn on details such as:

• the exact contract form and edition
• amended or bespoke clauses
• notice timing
• record quality
• causation
• quantification
• governing law

This skill helps you structure analysis quickly and consistently so you can spot risks early and avoid missing critical deadlines.

🇸🇬 Singapore matters — BCA circular awareness: BCA frequently updates SOP Act timelines, plan fees, CORENET-X procedures, BC1/structural codes, cost-sharing schemes, productivity grants, and buildability rules through circulars at https://www1.bca.gov.sg/resources/circulars/. If you maintain a local mirror (e.g. bca-circulars/ in your workspace, refreshed via a weekly heartbeat task), check it before relying on general knowledge. See references/singapore.md for details.

ℹ️ This skill does not fetch live BCA updates itself. If you maintain a local circulars mirror in your workspace, use it as an up-to-date reference alongside the skill.

Start here

Recommended for all users: Matter Intake

The intake mode triages a construction issue and produces a professional report with clause buckets, deadline checks, amendment warnings, confidence labels, and recommended next steps.

python3 scripts/construction_law.py intake
# or
python3 scripts/intake.py

Supports non-interactive mode for automation:

python3 scripts/intake.py --file matter.json --output report.md --save-matter answers.json

Use non-interactive mode for repeatable internal workflows, templates, or batch matter intake.

Sample Matter Intake output

Example: delay / EOT issue under FIDIC Red 1999

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 MATTER INTAKE — OUTPUT REPORT
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Contract:   FIDIC Red 1999
Governing:  Singapore
Party:      Contractor
Issue:      Delay / Extension of Time (EOT)
Objective:  Both EOT and additional payment

1. ISSUE SUMMARY
This appears to be a delay / EOT issue arising from late
access to site. The likely focus is notice compliance,
EOT entitlement, causation, and supporting records.

2. LIKELY CLAUSE BUCKETS
- Clause 2.1   Right of Access to Site
- Clause 8.4   Extension of Time
- Clause 20.1  Contractor's Claims

3. DEADLINE / TIME-BAR CHECK
Trigger:   Awareness of delaying event
Deadline:  28 days from awareness
Status:    ⚠️ Notice not confirmed
Risk:      Potential time-bar if late notice applies

4. AMENDMENT SENSITIVITY FLAGS
- Notice periods may be amended
- EOT wording may be narrowed
- Particular Conditions may override the standard form

5. RECOMMENDED NEXT STEPS
- confirm exact clause wording and edition
- verify whether notice was served in time
- gather programme and contemporaneous records
- prepare claim narrative and supporting documents

6. CONFIDENCE LABELS
Deadline calculation:      High confidence
Clause identification:     High confidence
Entitlement position:      Needs review

This is a workflow and analysis aid only. It is not legal advice.

Interactive Wizard

For tool-specific tasks (notices, claims, SOP calculator, etc.), use the wizard:

python3 scripts/construction_law.py wizard
# or
python3 scripts/wizard.py

For power users: Unified CLI

python3 scripts/construction_law.py --list
python3 scripts/construction_law.py notices --form fidic-red
python3 scripts/construction_law.py claims --form fidic-red --type disruption-claim
python3 scripts/construction_law.py sop --claim-date 2026-05-15
python3 scripts/construction_law.py compare --forms red,yellow --topic claims
python3 scripts/construction_law.py obligations --form fidic-red
python3 scripts/construction_law.py register --form fidic-red --type both --output reg.xlsx
python3 scripts/construction_law.py delay --baseline-start 2026-05-01 --baseline-end 2026-12-31

Critical rule: always confirm the contract edition first

Before any clause analysis, confirm:

• contract form
• edition/year
• governing law
• amendments or particular conditions
• whether bespoke terms override the standard form

Do not assume the latest edition applies.

Common editions still in use

• PSSCOC: 2017, 2020
• PSSCOC D&B: 2014, 2020
• FIDIC: 1999, 2017
• SIA: 9th Ed, 11th Ed
• NEC: NEC3, NEC4

Core workflows

1. Clause analysis

For any clause question, this skill helps you:

• identify the relevant clause
• explain the obligation, entitlement, or risk
• flag notice periods and time-bars
• cross-reference related clauses
• highlight where amendments may change the default position

2. Claims and EOT analysis

For delay, disruption, prolongation, and related claims, use this structure:

1. Entitlement
2. Causation
3. Notice compliance
4. Substantiation
5. Quantification

3. Notice calendars

Build notice calendars that capture:

• clause reference
• trigger event
• notice period
• recipient
• consequence of non-compliance

4. Risk allocation review

Assess whether risk is allocated to the party best able to:

1. identify it
2. control it
3. mitigate it
4. absorb it

5. Delay and LD exposure

Review:

• delay event chronology
• criticality
• concurrency
• potential EOT entitlement
• potential liquidated damages exposure

Included tools

Interactive Wizard

Guided prompts for common tasks.

python3 scripts/wizard.py

Notice Calendar Generator

Generate notice and obligations calendars.

python3 scripts/notice_calendar.py --form fidic-red --format md
python3 scripts/notice_calendar.py --form psscoc --format csv --output notices.csv

Claims Template Generator

Generate structured templates for claim notices and related submissions.

python3 scripts/claims_template.py --list
python3 scripts/claims_template.py --form fidic-red --type notice-of-claim --output notice.md
python3 scripts/claims_template.py --form psscoc --type eot-application --output eot.md

Obligations Register Generator

Create obligations registers by party and category.

python3 scripts/obligations_register.py --form fidic-red --party both --format md
python3 scripts/obligations_register.py --form psscoc --party contractor --format csv --output obligations.csv

SOP Act Payment Timeline Calculator

Calculate statutory payment deadlines from a Singapore payment claim date.

python3 scripts/sop_calculator.py --claim-date 2026-06-30
python3 scripts/sop_calculator.py --claim-date 2026-06-30 --response-period 14 --format csv --output timeline.csv

FIDIC Contract Comparator

Compare FIDIC forms side by side.

python3 scripts/fidic_comparator.py --forms red,yellow,silver --topic risk
python3 scripts/fidic_comparator.py --forms red,silver --topic all --format csv --output comparison.csv

Topics: overview, risk, claims, disputes, payment, termination, all

Delay Analysis Calculator

Assess delay events, concurrency, EOT exposure, and LD risk.

python3 scripts/delay_calculator.py --baseline-start 2026-05-11 --baseline-end 2030-05-10 \
  --add "Late access|2026-06-01|2026-06-30|employer|critical" \
  --add "Weather|2026-07-15|2026-07-25|neutral|critical"

Excel Register Generator

Export notice calendars and obligations registers to .xlsx.

python3 scripts/excel_register.py --form fidic-red --type both --output contract_admin.xlsx --commencement 2026-05-11
python3 scripts/excel_register.py --form psscoc --type obligations --output obligations.xlsx

Requires: openpyxl (pip3 install openpyxl)

Example outputs

Notice calendar — concrete sample

Clause:    FIDIC 20.2.1
Trigger:   Event giving rise to claim
Deadline:  28 days from awareness
Recipient: Engineer
Risk:      Late notice may prejudice entitlement (time-bar)

Notice calendar — fields

• Clause reference
• Trigger event
• Notice deadline
• Recipient
• Time-bar consequence

Claims template

• Background
• Contract basis
• Event chronology
• Causation
• Notice compliance
• Relief sought
• Reservation of rights
• Supporting documents

Obligations register

• Clause
• Obligation
• Responsible party
• Timing
• Priority
• Status
• Notes

Best use cases

• preliminary clause review
• contract administration checklists
• claim structure and document preparation
• notice and deadline tracking
• form comparison
• SOP timeline calculation
• delay event triage

Important limitations

This skill is a workflow and analysis aid. It is not a substitute for legal advice.

Use caution where:

• the contract is heavily amended
• bespoke EPC or project-specific drafting applies
• governing law may materially change the outcome
• local statutory regimes override standard form assumptions
• adjudication, arbitration, or court submissions require final review

Always verify:

• the contract edition
• amendments and particular conditions
• governing law
• notice requirements
• jurisdiction-specific treatment of concurrency, good faith, prevention, and time-bars

Key principles

• Read the contract first
• Standard form positions mean little if amended
• Time-bars can be fatal
• Notice compliance should be checked before merits
• Concurrency treatment differs by jurisdiction
• Good faith is jurisdiction-specific
• Prevention issues may affect LD exposure
• Fitness for purpose and reasonable skill and care must be distinguished carefully

Reference files

• references/fidic.md
• references/singapore.md
• references/claims.md
• references/disputes.md
• references/procurement.md

Live knowledge sources (Singapore)

For up-to-date Singapore regulatory context, consult the BCA circulars page — the authoritative source for changes to SOP Act timelines, plan fees, CORENET-X, BC1/structural codes, cost-sharing schemes, productivity grants, and buildability requirements:

• Source: https://www1.bca.gov.sg/resources/circulars/
• Recommended setup: Maintain a local PDF mirror (e.g. bca-circulars/ in your workspace) refreshed weekly via a heartbeat or cron task. Track seen titles in a seen.json index to detect new circulars.

When advising on Singapore matters touching SOP Act timelines, plan fees, CORENET-X, BC1/structural codes, cost-sharing schemes, productivity grants, or buildability requirements, check the latest circulars first before relying on general knowledge — BCA updates can change deadlines, rates, and procedural requirements.

If your local mirror looks stale (>2 weeks old), trigger a fresh fetch.

🔒 Security and safety

All Python scripts in this skill are designed as safe, local template and register generators.

• ✅ No network access — no API calls, no HTTP requests, no telemetry
• ✅ No subprocess execution — no shell commands, no external programs
• ✅ No dynamic code loading — sibling scripts are imported as plain Python modules (no importlib, no exec, no eval)
• ✅ No filesystem traversal — only writes to the user-specified --output path
• ✅ Read-only static reference data — contract clauses bundled with the skill
• ✅ ClawScan: Benign
• ✅ Static analysis: Benign
• ℹ️ VirusTotal status is shown on the listing page

Safe to install and use. 🛡️