Expert Perspective: Aaron Moore, Director; Construction and Dispute Resolution

In this interview, Aaron Moore, Director at Cleaver Fulton Rankin, shares insights on key industry challenges, from labour shortages to rising costs – and stresses the importance of early dispute resolution. His advice to companies? Engage specialist advisors early and explore alternatives like adjudication or mediation to save time, cost, and relationships.

1. You specialise in advising clients in Dispute Resolution. Tell us about your areas of expertise in the Property & Construction Sector.

 I am a Director in the Dispute Resolution Team at Cleaver Fulton Rankin. I specialise in dispute resolution, construction and procurement, with a special focus on property and construction disputes. I advise a range of clients including employers, main contractors and sub-contractors under construction contracts, energy generation companies, transmission operators and blue chip corporates, retailers, local Councils, educational institutions and financial institutions.

I regularly act in disputes in the Commercial Court, Judicial Review, Chancery Court and Lands Tribunal and advise on all forms of dispute resolution including adjudication, arbitration, and mediation.

My active presence in ADR has been recognised locally. I helped to develop University of Ulster’s Masters in International Commercial Law and ADR and I teach on the same topics as a guest lecturer.

I was added to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) President’s Panel for Construction Adjudication in 2020 and since then I have determined 40+ complex commercial adjudications as the dispute resolver.

I regularly speak at events organised by the RICS, CIArb, BICBA and the Society of Construction Law .

2. You have advised leading companies in Northern Ireland in the Property & Construction Sector. Are there any stand out matters and any key learnings you can share?

 I have been involved in many property and construction disputes in Northern Ireland, both as a party representative and as the dispute resolver when acting in my role as a Construction Adjudicator.

It would be inappropriate to refer to those disputes individually, however there have been key trends. Core areas of dispute include payment, delay, termination, and defects.

The key learning for any company involved in court proceedings is that they are usually protracted and costly and can be a drain on key resources that would be otherwise better deployed in the day to day operation of the business.

Involving a firm with specialist knowledge in alternative dispute resolution should help to guide your dispute to a quicker and more cost effective form of resolution that should free up the internal resource to focus on profit generation.

A core key learning is therefore to investigate alternative means of resolving any dispute early, such as adjudication and/or mediation and deploy that alternative early in the process.

3. What do you see as being the primary challenges and opportunities for the Property& Construction Sector in Northern Ireland currently?

The Property & Construction Sector in Northern Ireland faces several key challenges. The list below will be no shock to those in the industry. It is by no means exhaustive.

• Labour Shortages – There is a growing skills gap due to an aging workforce and a reduced number of new entrants to the work force. Brexit has arguably impeded the availability of a migrant labour force.
• Material Costs & Supply Chain Issues – Steel, timber and concrete have witnessed evident increase in costs. That coupled with supply chain issues has had a negative impact on project budgets and timelines.
• Planning and Regulation Delays – Slow approval processes have had knock on impacts on project delivery.
• Underfunded Infrastructure – There is an ongoing need for better and more sustained investment in water, roads, public transport and housing. This is severely limited by austerity, limiting significant progress.
• Insurance and Liability Costs – Rising insurance premiums and the newly extended limitation periods for defective premises make operation more expensive.
• Housing & Infrastructure Demand – There is a high demand for housing and infrastructure projects. The ability to meet that demand is constrained by funding, labour and planning issues.

4. What are your predictions for the year ahead in the Property & Construction Sector in Northern Ireland?

There is no realistic magic wand for many of the issues above, at least not in the short term. The sector is resilient and has had to deal with many of the challenges above in various guises before.

I suspect that demand for projects will remain high and could increase. More significant publicly funded projects may also reach the tender stage and this in turn will increase the demand on labour shortages and supply chain issues.

The obvious outworking of the above are that tendered costs will increase and the viability of projects may be called in for review.

As pressures increase, it is inevitable that more disputes will arise.

5. If you could give one piece of advice to a Property & Construction company in a dispute, what would it be?

Do your homework! Partner with a firm with a specialist property and construction focus and with a strong offering in alternative dispute resolution. It will be much more cost and time effective in the long run and may help to preserve on-going working relationships. Engage your external advisors earlier and challenge them to provide alternative, faster and more holistic forms of dispute resolution.

Find out more about Cleaver Fulton Rankin’s Property Developers and Construction legal services here.

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