Tender queries

[nuelec]

Hi All
i know tendering subjects have been discussed here before but having been through several threads i haven't found the answers i was looking for, so apologies if you have answered this before
I am submitting a tender which is considerably larger than i am used to, so my questions relate to the expected constraints of taking on larger projects.
the tender includes

5% retention
12 month maintenance / warranty cover. Is there an industry accepted norm for this? eg 5% of contract sum
LADS @ £5000 per week?? anyone know what this means?

The retention is self explanatory but suffering this for a possible 12 months would be painful.
I am thinking along the lines of the following
Calculate my costs as per my usual formula's
Increase my general labour costs by 5% to offset some of the retention
Add a maintenance cost of 5% to be paid monthly during the 12 month period
I would be interested to know what folks out there who regularly deal with retentions & maintenance periods do to keep financially comfortable without becoming too uncompetitive

Additionallty the tender return form requires a figure for contract preliminaries. I understand this to be project overheads eg fuel, attendances of non productive staff, plant etc. I am not intending to add an additional cost for this as i expect that it would normally be included in general overall costs but i was wondering if again there is a generally accepted percentage of the contract sum? I was thinking of around 10%

Any thoughts & advice would be appreciated

 

[snowhead]

LADS = Penalty payment for your late completion of the work.

 

[nuelec]

Thanks
Thats useful to know. especially at 5K pw

 

[snowhead]

Don't be late....

And I would think they would expect to see a Value for Contract Preliminaries

 

[Andy78]

LADS (not sure of the acronym) sounds like it will be the fee due per week in the event of any delay to the delivery of the contract directly attributed to your works.

A retention of 5% is normal. The contracts I used to price for a former company had the warranty/retention as the same sum, not additional. This was typically held for 12 months. The client was a local authority.

I can't really help with any of the other issues, but I hope this is of some use.

 

[ian.settle1]

LADS see link

LADs - Liquidated and Ascertained Damages (construction contract)

 

[Dcf]

I take it the contract is priced on a bill of quantities?
price the bill as your rates
Depending on contract the prelims might/might not have to be broken down
ie site cabins, travel time, plant hire etc
i normally would add 5% to cover the retention but as contract work is as tight as 2 coats of paint at the moment it's your call on how competitive you want to be.
5k liquidate damages sounds quite steep but I suppose it depends on the value of the job.
A word of caution....main contractors are at the moment going in at minus cost to get jobs and look to design change / variations/subby bash to claw it back.doing a job for hee haw means hee haw profit.best of British

 

[nuelec]

Don't be late....

And I would think they would expect to see a Value for Contract Preliminaries

Yes they do. What what be the norm here? 10%