Biography
I act on behalf of a wide array of stakeholders involved in construction and engineering projects including employers / developers, funders, contractors, subcontractors and professionals including architects, engineers and quantity surveyors. My email is alex.delin@irwinmitchell.com.
I provide ongoing advice to clients during the lifetime of projects involving residential, commercial, mixed-use, production, research and development facilities, warehouses, schools, hotels, hospitals, care homes and infrastructure works.
Clients may require advice on specific legal points on an ad-hoc basis to better understand their commercial standing to aid negotiations, particularly where there are disputes. I assist all the way through from tendering to final account negotiations and matters arising under defect rectification periods.
Where differences emerge which appear irreconcilable, I advise and represent clients seeking the best possible resolution. My experience over the last 10 years includes corresponding, meeting, mediating, arbitrating, adjudicating and litigating actions in the Technology & Construction Court, relating to works primarily carried out under standard form JCT, NEC, RIBA and bespoke forms of contracts.
I represent clients in matters concerning allegations over defective design and workmanship including fire safety and cladding, suspension, termination, notified sums in accordance with contractual provisions or legislation such as the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996, and about the value of interim and final accounts.
Differences between parties to a construction project vary and can also be about requests for extensions of time, loss and expense, consequences of delay including concurrency arguments, prolongation and disruption, variations to scope of works and assessments of measured works. My experience lies in acting for clients in disputes over interim and final account issues.
The allocation of risk between parties has over the years become a central component of any building, design and engineering appointment. I help prepare construction documents for clients to reduce the likelihood of disputes emerging later down the line while affording better protection if they do.
I have drafted insurance policies for insurance companies, namely since the Insurance Act 2015 became law. Tapping into that experience enables me to explore commercial solutions to disputes which involve interpretations of policy wordings. I regularly act in cases for employers and contractors in which Construction All Risk (CAR), Public Liability and Professional Indemnity insurance policies feature and overlap, including presenting cases to and negotiating with insurers, loss adjusters and claims handlers.
I have broader experience within and outside the real estate sector, having acted on transactions and in cases involving planning, joint venture agreements (litigated in the Commercial Court), unfair prejudice and winding up petitions.
I regularly advise clients with respect to the provisions of the Building Safety Act 2022 since it became law on 28 June 2022, as well as the self-remediation terms, including claims under the retrospectively extended Defective Premises Act 1972 limitation period, Landlord's Certificates, Remediation Contribution Orders, Remediation Orders, Building Liability Orders, defective products, recovering historical costs incurred while awaiting for remedial works, and the Building Safety Regulator with respect to Higher Risk Buildings.
