Latent conditions
Latent conditions are physical site conditions that differ materially from what a reasonable contractor would have anticipated at tender - rock where the bore logs showed clay, services where the drawings showed none.
The default legal position without a latent conditions clause is harsh: the risk of ground conditions generally sits with the party who priced the work. Contract clauses redistribute that risk - and modern subcontract drafting often pushes it back to you, sometimes with an acknowledgment that you inspected the site and satisfied yourself of everything discoverable.
Why it matters to subbies
Notice windows on latent conditions are among the shortest in the contract. The moment something unexpected appears: stop, photograph, notify in writing the same day - before the excavator covers the evidence.
Keep reading
General information for Australian subcontractors, not legal advice - contract drafting and state legislation vary and change; your document and your state's Act govern. Written by Mat Kennedy at The Construction Contracts Co.