My contractor has stopped work and is not answering. What should I do first?
Secure the site and your documents before anything else. Photograph and record the state of the works, list materials and plant on site, change access controls where the contract allows, and check the company's status with ACRA. Then read your contract's default and termination clauses and serve any required notices strictly as written. Check the expiry date of any performance bond and, if you intend to call it, do so before it lapses. Take legal advice before terminating, because a wrongful termination can make you the party in breach.
From the RRD Field Guide, checked against the sources cited in Contractor Insolvency in Singapore: How Owners Protect Themselves If the Contractor Goes Bust. General information, not advice for your project.
The fuller picture
If your contractor becomes insolvent, the money you have not yet paid is your main protection. Pay only against work done, hold a performance bond and check its expiry, keep the right to terminate and step in, and use SOPA section 24 to pay unpaid subcontractors directly where needed. Anything the insolvent contractor still owes you becomes a proof of debt in its liquidation, usually recovered at a fraction.
More questions on this topic
- Can I call the performance bond if the contractor goes into liquidation?
- What is SOPA section 24 and how does it help an owner?
- Can my contract say I may terminate if the contractor becomes insolvent?
- How do I claim money from a contractor that is in liquidation?
- How much deposit should I pay a renovation or fit-out contractor?
- What happened with Greatearth in 2021?
- Will a replacement contractor cost more than the original?