ARCHITECTURAL FIRM FBW DRAGGED TO COURT OVER BREACH OF KABIRA EXTENSION CONTRACT

By our reporter

www.mknewslink.com

In Kampala

Meera Investments Limited have sued architectural firm FBW (u) Ltd and its two directors Nigel J. Tilling, and Paul Moores with a law suit of up to $3m in breach of the Kabira Country Club extension contract.

Acting through Ssemambo & Ssemambo Advocates and Magna Advocates, the suit has been filed before the Commercial Division of the High Court and the defendants have been given two weeks to file their defence.

FBW and the two individuals Tiling and Moores had previously provided services for Meera Investments and it was on that premise that they were entrusted with the botched job. They had previously worked on Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort, Kampala International School, Delhi Public School, Kampala Boulevard Shopping Centre, Kingdom Kampala, Downtown Project in Rwanda and Phase 1 of Kabira Country Club.

“Since its establishment in 2000, the enhanced reputation of the Club (Kabira) as a renowned sport and health club facility and offering varying facilities including high end quality accommodation, service apartments, conferences and high quality services has attracted an increased clientele base beyond its capacity, thereby necessitating the need for expeditious expansion of the club’s facilities to accommodate the increased clients’ , which would also resultantly grow its income,” part of the suit reads.

FBW entered into contract with Meera on 6th February 2012 for both Speke Apartments Wampewo and Kabira Country Club extension with the scope of work including design development encompassing architectural, structural engineering, mechanical and electrical engineering, other civil services, design team coordination, construction supervision and incidental services.

Meera went ahead and made payments in installments stipulated in the contract and it was agreed that the Kabira expansion project is stayed until the completion of Speke Apartments Wampewo. In October 2018, the parties mutually agreed to resume the implementation of Kabira’s expansion project.

FBW and its directors undertook to complete full construction drawings before the end of December 2018 with construction scheduled to start in January 2019. By this time FBW had already received three installments which covered work up to submission of construction drawings package.

However, in contravention of the contract, FBW demanded more money totaling to $75,000 (20%) which they were supposed to receive when construction had commenced. Meera who urgently needed construction to commence made the payments and FBW to their surprise demanded more money in November 2018.

Meera in dire need of the project to commence made another $37,500 payment which was supposed to be the fifth installment, also supposed to be an in-between construction payment, long after the drawings should have been submitted.

Meera requested for the architectural drawings but to their shock, FBW demanded a sixth installment which was supposed to be paid on completion of construction of the shell structure. On insistence, FBW only handed over PDF format which was neither adjustable, nor usable and they didn’t include the CAD files of the construction drawings.

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