Basic facts of the case
In May 2017, the applicant's engineering consulting company and the respondent's real estate company signed the Construction Project Cost Consulting Contract, stipulating that the respondent's real estate company would entrust the applicant's engineering consulting company to prepare a bill of quantities for the project of "a real estate project and an affiliated shopping center project". The contract stipulates that the two parties shall charge three thousandths of the cost of the bill of quantities, and pay it in a lump sum after the completion of the budget, and then the applicant shall complete the preparation of the bill of quantities in June 2017 and send the results to the respondent's mailbox, which shows that the preparation cost of the project involved in the case is 72,330,000 yuan. Since February 2019, the Applicant, an engineering consulting company, has repeatedly failed to request the person in charge of the Respondent's real estate company for cost consulting remuneration, so it has filed for arbitration with the Commission.
The respondent argued that the Construction Project Cost Consulting Contract signed between the Claimant, an engineering consulting company, and the Respondent, a real estate company, was invalid due to the lack of qualifications of the engineering consulting company, and that the Claimant's arbitration claim had exceeded the statute of limitations.
Adjudication Results
Within 10 days from the effective date of this award, the respondent real estate company shall pay a remuneration of 217008 yuan to the applicant engineering consulting company and the overdue payment interest calculated 217008 from August 20, 2019 in accordance with the loan market prime rate announced by the National Interbank Funding Center until the date of actual payment; Other arbitration claims of the claimant, an engineering consulting firm, were dismissed.
Typical significance
In this case, the respondent submitted that the project cost consulting contract involved in the case was invalid in accordance with the provisions of the "Measures for the Administration of Engineering Cost Consulting Enterprises" at that time, and the applicant failed to provide the project cost results documents stamped by the engineering cost consulting enterprise and the registered cost engineer as required, and its application for payment of remuneration could not be established. However, the arbitral tribunal held that the validity of the contract should be determined in accordance with the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China and relevant judicial interpretations, and although the applicant violated the provisions of the then Administrative Measures for Engineering Cost Consulting Enterprises, which stipulated that Class B engineering cost consulting enterprises could only engage in project cost consulting business below 50 million yuan, the regulations of the department only regulated the market access qualification of engineering cost consulting enterprises, and did not affect the validity of the contract, and the construction cost consulting contract involved in the case was valid.
In addition, the "Construction Project Cost Consulting Contract" did not stipulate the delivery form of the consulting outcome document, and when the applicant delivered the entrusted matter in the form of an electronic version of the document, the respondent real estate company did not raise an objection at that time. The applicant, an engineering consulting company, has invested a certain amount of manpower and material resources in order to complete the preparation of the bill of quantities, and the applicant's engineering consulting company has completed the substantive cost preparation work, and the respondent's real estate company should pay the corresponding consideration for receiving the service, which is in line with the principle of fairness.
Lan Zhong reminded
When signing the project cost consulting service contract, the client should first check whether the enterprise has obtained the "engineering cost consulting enterprise qualification certificate" issued by the construction administrative department in accordance with the law, clarify the service content, performance period, charging standards and other matters, the client should provide the engineering cost consulting company in a timely manner to carry out the necessary work information for consulting business, and the engineering cost consulting company should also complete the consulting services and consulting results according to the contract. All parties shall, in accordance with the provisions of the contract, exercise their rights and perform their contractual obligations in a timely manner, and recover all expenses in a timely manner after the completion of the project.
Contributed by: Propaganda Department
Editor-in-charge: Zhang Shuqian
Editor: Han Xiaowen, Wang Pingxia
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