Whilst it is open to parties to agree the identity of the adjudicator, if agreement cannot be reached, the contract will normally state the Nominating Body to be used to appoint an adjudicator.  The Referring Party will make an application to the Nominating Body and pay the required fee.  It is usual for a Nominating Body to state they can take up five days to make a nomination so care should be taken to ensure sufficient time is provided to the Nominating Body to allow the nomination to be made and the Referral served within the seven day period from service of the Notice of Intention to Refer.

There are however occasions where the contract is silent on which Nominating Body should be used.  In these circumstances, parties require to refer to the Scheme. Paragraph 2(c) of the Scheme provides that "the referring party shall request an adjudicator nominating body to select a person to act as adjudicator".

This means that it is open to the Referring Party to choose which Nominating Body to ask to nominate an adjudicator.

Next week we will look at issues surrounding multiple disputes.  If you haven’t read our previous adjudication blogs they can be found here.  Our commonly used terms glossary for adjudication can be found in our week two blog.

Should you require any assistance with adjudication, we have a large and experienced construction team who regularly deal with adjudications and we would be happy to discuss the process with you.