1. Overview
The provisions on the delivery of construction products or products specify two types of purchases, namely consignment purchase and pickup purchase.
In case of consignment purchase, the seller sends the construction goods or products to the buyer, while in the case of pickup, it is the buyer who picks up the construction goods or products from the seller.
The provisions are essentially the same when comparing NS 8411 and NS 8412.
From this must be made a clarification, and it is in those cases where the parties have agreed on assembly. In such cases, final fulfilment of the agreement will not be deemed to have occurred until the assembly has been completed and the products taken over in accordance with the rules on takeover business.
We have dealt with assembly including takeover business in a separate article located in the thematic collection for the provisions special in NS 8412, read more here.
With this exception, the provisions concerning consignment and collection purchases are identical and are therefore treated collectively in this article.
2. Rule mirror
3. Consignment purchase
3.1 Place of delivery
In case of consignment purchase, it is the seller who will arrange for the shipment of construction products or products to the buyer. Unless otherwise agreed, the seller shall also arrange to unload the goods or products from the means of transport and place them safely in the agreed or designated place.
The Seller bears the risk of the goods or products up to and including delivery, cf. NS 8411 paragraph 15.1 and NS 8412 paragraph 12.2.1.
In cases where the parties have specifically agreed that the buyer will unload the goods or products from the means of transport, delivery shall be deemed to have taken place when the carrier has arrived at the agreed receiving address and unloading place. The risk of the goods and products thus passes to the buyer when the goods or products are ready to be unloaded by the buyer.
In order for the goods or products to be transported to the right place, the receiving address and the place of unloading must be agreed. Furthermore, it follows from the second paragraph of the provisions that the buyer is obliged to have a representative present to accept the goods or products. If the buyer does not provide a representative and it is nevertheless considered prudent to unload, the seller may unload the goods by means of transport.
The provision specifies that the seller must first attempt to obtain the buyer. This obligation can be seen as the result of the general obligation of loyalty in paragraph 3.1 of the standards. After all, it may be that the buyer has mistaken the timing, or temporarily prevented it. It is also not uncommon for carriers to arrive earlier or later than originally agreed. In any case, the crucial thing to initiate unloading without the buyer or his representative being present is that the goods or products can be placed in a safe manner.
3.2 Carrier and means of transport
Often it is the case that the seller contracts a carrier to transport the goods/products out to their customers.
If the Buyer understands that special equipment will be required to ensure a legitimate delivery, the Buyer must inform about this in good time. Since these are deliveries to an ongoing construction or construction project, you can experience many kinds of challenges. There may be temporary obstacles as a result of ongoing works that allow one to add unloading to specific days of the week or times of the day. There may be long distances from the nearest staging point and up to the place where the goods or product are to be delivered. An example of the latter is the delivery of finished concrete from a pump truck where there is such a long distance that long conveyor belts or hoses are needed. In other cases, the construction or construction site is located in a place without road access.
It therefore appears reasonably obvious that the Buyer must provide the Seller with the necessary information in order for him to order a carrier who has the necessary equipment and/ or has the opportunity to adapt his delivery to the existing framework factors.
If the goods or products are to be delivered inside a building or construction site where special rules apply to how to move, the buyer must of course provide information about this. Similarly, the seller is obliged to familiarize himself with such rules and ensure that the carrier has the necessary knowledge.
Finally, it is pointed out that the industry's focus on serious working life, etc. also includes freight forwarders. These should have “required certificates”, “ID card” and “valid credentials”, while the means of transport and associated equipment must comply with legal requirements.
3.3 Access
As mentioned in point 3.1, the seller has the risk of the goods or products up to and including delivery. However, this does not mean that the buyer is free from obligations until and including delivery. We have already established that the Buyer is obliged to receive the goods or products, and the Buyer is also obliged to disclose any special circumstances about which the carrier needs information at the place of unloading.
In the provisions of the standards on “Access”, the buyer's duty of activity is supplemented to include information on special conditions that shippers should be aware of and concerning the distance from the public road to the landfill, etc.
One can imagine, for example, that this stretch consists of partly narrow and heavy winding roads, roads with steep slopes on either side and/ or bridges of relatively low height. In sum, this can make it difficult, in part, to transport items over a certain length, or height. It may also place restrictions on which vehicles the carrier can use.
If the Buyer does not fulfill his obligations to provide such information, the risk of timely delivery lies with the Buyer. The seller, of course, retains the risk of the goods or products until they have been delivered, but delays resulting from the buyer's failure to fulfill his activity or disclosure obligations must be at the buyer's risk.
The fact that the risk lies with the buyer is clear from the words “shall make sure”, and this applies in part “that conditions are arranged” and partly give “sells necessary information about the conditions leading up to and at the place of delivery”.
Of course, there will be a possibility of misunderstandings as long as the buyer must inform the seller, and the seller must inform the carrier.
Nevertheless, one should be strictly formal and follow the chain of contracts so that one is not tempted to enter into a dialogue involving only the buyer and the carrier. In any case, the buyer should first provide the seller with a written statement about particular challenges, and then the buyer can have a dialogue with the carrier if it is necessary for him to find out exactly.
Another aspect of this, of course, is that special challenges in terms of both access and transport as such can trigger greater demands for remuneration than is normally calculated. For all parties, it is therefore best if such details are clarified as part of the agreed remuneration.
Note also the last paragraph of the provisions, which states that the seller also has an obligation to inform the buyer if there are special circumstances the buyer must take into account in his preparations for receiving the goods/products. It is conceivable, for example, that the construction products or products in question should not be used immediately and therefore need to be stored in intermediate storage. If the goods or products are sensitive to direct sun or cold temperatures, the seller must inform the buyer about this.
4th. Pickup Purchase
Pickup purchase occurs when the buyer is going to pick up the goods/product from the seller. In such cases, the delivery takes place when they are handed over to the buyer.
The handover can take place in one of two ways.
If it is agreed “freely uploaded” the goods or products will be handed over when they have been loaded onto the means of transport used by the buyer to transport the goods or products.
If nothing is agreed, the goods or products will be considered as handed over when the buyer has received them with the right and opportunity to load them on the means of transport themselves.
5. Costs
The provision is short and states only that the seller bears the costs of the goods/products until they are delivered, while the buyer is responsible for the increased costs due to this circumstance “answers for”.
Transferred to, for example, what concerns the buyer's obligations in terms of income. If the buyer fails to inform about conditions that make delivery at the construction site more costly than the seller could foresee, the buyer must bear the additional costs of this. The same applies if the carrier has to return because he was not received by the buyer as agreed, and it was not possible to properly unload the goods or products. For example, the concrete truck with mortar can not start unloading if there is no one in the place to receive it.
In addition, the transport costs and the additional costs incurred by special circumstances will be included as part of the agreed purchase price. If the carrier demands an increase in remuneration from the seller, the seller cannot demand this replacement from the buyer as long as the buyer has complied with his duties according to the provisions of the standards.
