Get your construction procurement agreement right from the start

Because broad agreement usually does not answer the questions that affect delivery once the project is moving. Procurement arrangements can involve ordering responsibilities, lead times, substitutions, delivery coordination, payment triggers, storage issues and interfaces with site work. If those points are not documented properly, the parties can end up arguing about who was meant to do what when delays or cost changes occur. A procurement agreement records those mechanics in legal terms, rather than leaving them to assumptions or scattered correspondence.

It will usually cover the procurement scope, specifications or item categories, pricing and payment timing, ordering authority, delivery obligations, timing expectations, variation steps, defects or non-conforming supply issues, site coordination points, safety-related responsibilities, liability allocation, termination and dispute procedures. The exact mix depends on whether the arrangement is supply-heavy, coordination-heavy or tied closely to broader construction works. Good drafting should reflect the actual procurement workflow, including who approves changes and how project-side dependencies are managed.

Useful details include who the parties are, what is being procured, whether the agreement covers supply only or also coordination, how pricing works, who can authorise changes, where delivery risk sits, and how the procurement role interacts with the wider project team. It also helps to know whether lead times are critical, whether substitute materials may be needed, and whether there are staged deliveries or milestone payments. Those facts shape the legal drafting far more than simply calling the document a procurement agreement.

A standard template may not reflect the way procurement risk actually sits on your project. For example, it may not deal properly with delayed supply, partial delivery, approval bottlenecks, substitution decisions, or the handover point between off-site procurement and on-site responsibility. Those are often the issues that create cost and timing pressure. Tailored drafting is usually more useful where the procurement role is tied to construction sequencing, where multiple parties are involved, or where the commercial structure is more complex than a straightforward supply arrangement.

No. The fixed-fee is for the legal drafting or review of the procurement agreement described on this page, plus one round of amendments. It can cover the contract wording around scope, payment, safety and variations, but it does not include ongoing representation, project administration, regulator filings, tax advice or general management of the procurement process after delivery. If you later need help with related construction documents, negotiations or disputes, that would usually be handled as separate work.

Submit an enquiry on this page or click 'Get started'. One of our legal consultants will review it within 1 business day and get in touch to understand what you need.

Your consultant will then email you a fixed-fee quote setting out the cost, scope and timing. If you're happy with it, you can accept the quote and sign our engagement letter online.

Once you've accepted, one of our Australian-qualified lawyers will work with you to complete your project. They'll contact you by email or phone if they need anything.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Construction Procurement Agreement service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We work online, so we can help wherever you are in New Zealand. Our team works remotely, mainly from Australia.

Your work is done by our Australian-qualified lawyers, who hold Australian practising certificates and specialise in business law. None of them are New Zealand lawyers or hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

Sprintlaw NZ Limited is a legal consultancy, not a law firm, and is not regulated by the New Zealand Law Society. We don't act in court or tribunal matters, conveyancing (including leases and business sales) or other reserved areas of work. Communications with Sprintlaw are unlikely to be protected by legal professional privilege. We still keep everything confidential under our engagement letter.