Building an Extension – Professionals You Need In 10 Easy Steps: Review the tenders and adjudicate

Adjudication of tenders

Step 8 – Review the tenders returned and adjudicate

Previously we read that we are in the position to go out to tender, then waited for the agreed tender period weeks to expire and the tenders to arrive.

We can now ready to review the tenders and carryout a direct comparison of each tender, sounds simple right?

Now is the time to not immediately look at the bottom line of each tender and make a quick decision to get the work started

Soft review of the tenders

Now to go through some simple steps to make sure that everything has been covered by the contractor and they have not inadvertently forgotten to provide costs against  items in the tender and making the bottom line look attractive

If any items are unpriced and they have not been qualified (a reason for excluding the costs), we need to request this information from each contractor and then review the tenders with the updated information

Qualifications

Now we need to look at the contractors qualifications, if any, these are not if they are qualified to carryout the work as we have ascertained that previously when we selected our contractors

This is for anything they have decided they could not accurately price, this can be down to their interpretation of the drawings or documents but needs to be factored into the total cost.

A common issue when we review the tenders

Let’s look at a scenario where this can happen and have a serious effect on the total price you will pay

For instance, in the tender there is a requirement for some bespoke built in units in the front room to create storage and housing for the tv which is all the rage at the moment.

When at tender review stage check what you are getting
  1. Contractor A – has accurately priced in the schedule of works at a value of £2000

2. Contractor B – has excluded the price from the schedule of works and added a qualification that they require further drawings/information and have provided a provisional sum of £750

3. Contractor C – has accurately priced in the schedule of works at £2,200

The overall effect of this on the tender sum is that all things being equal Contractor B is £1250 more competitive  i.e. cheaper

When we look at the bottom line of the tender this creates an artificial view of the actual cost you will pay

This is of course assuming all other aspects being equal for the storage and TV unit.

The solution

Where this occurs, firstly we need to ask the contractor if they will update their cost and amend the schedule of works to a fixed sum as the other contractors have,

If this is not forthcoming by the contractor we will add our own sum to level the playing field.

Based on the above figures we will amend the cost for this item against contractor 2 so it is in line with the other tenders so we negate any unfair advantage.

This exercise of reviewing the tenders is then completed for all items that have a discrepancy within each tender return

We can then move on to produce a tender report to get the final decision.

Next let’s look at step 9 The Tender Report