By Mimidoo Patrick
A real estate lawyer, Bayo Owojori has said that the construction industry will be affected mostly because of the diverse nature of activities which is a common feature of the industry after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Owojori who stated this at the webinar hosted by the Lagos state chapter of Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB “Impact of CoVID-19 on building contract and litigation”.
He said with the imminent impact of CoVID-19 on builders and contractors, experts have advanced the need for practitioners to evaluate terms of contract in alliance with legal experts to determine which principle of law that could be applicable for defense.
According to him, “it is important that professionals in construction industry get ready for likely Post CoVID-19 issues. expressed concerns that at the end of the pandemic, the courts might be flooded with a lot of disputes and cases that arising form the breach of contractual ownership.
Owojori said the pandemic caught the entire world unaware and unprepared. Following this, he noted that it is expected that a lot of business ownership will be affected by the incident and many business owners might be thrown out of office.
“The construction industry will be affected mostly because of the diverse nature of activities which is a common feature of the industry. Since contract is an agreement between two parties which the court can enforce, builders or contractors will not be able to hide under any excuse that they didn’t sign any document since the industry is majorly contract based”, he said.
He specifically listed construction contract, labour only contract, sub-contract, maintenance contract, supervision contract, and facility management contract and others as areas where dispute could arise.
According to him, factors that could contribute to a breach of contract include when there has been agreement between two parties, which form a contract before the pandemic.
“For the purpose of contract litigation and dispute settlement, the reasonable time to talk about was April first, 2020 when the federal government announced a lockdown in Lagos, Ogun and Abuja”, he said.
He said factor that would determine liability in contract breach would depend on the nature of the contract as well as the content of the contract, when payment was received or made, when the agreement was enter into, the terms/ provisions for unforeseen circumstances, the duration of contract, and the degree of performance of the contract before the lockdown.
The relevance of the parties to the contract, he said is also important for individuals to sue for any claim or benefit.
