The term "contractor" and "subcontractor" is most often found in the construction industry. This type of contractual relationship and mutual obligations is beneficial both for the mentioned business entities and for the end consumer - the customer. Involvement of subcontractors in the work allows to improve the quality and reduce the terms of these works.
Who are contractors and subcontractors
A contractor is an organization or enterprise, a legal entity that concludes an agreement with the customer, i.e. contracted to do some work. By and large, the end result and the compliance of the object of the contractual relationship with all the requirements that apply to this type of product, be it a building being built or a software product, are important to the customer. If the contract does not stipulate that all types of work will be performed only by the contractor, he has the right to involve third parties, other enterprises, which in this case will be subcontractors.
Construction, and many other types of activities are licensed, i.e. to perform a certain type of construction and installation work, a special permit is required, obtained after joining a self-regulatory construction organization. To obtain this admission, the enterprise must have the required number of certified specialists with this qualification, as well as special equipment to perform this type of work.
Since the construction process includes many different technologically separate types of work, the contractor may not have permission to perform each of them. In this case, it is advisable to attract one or more subcontractors with permits for those types of work for which the contractor does not have official permission. The subcontractor, who has permission, qualified specialists and special equipment, performs the assigned part of the work in accordance with the additionally concluded subcontract agreement.
Contractual relationship in case of subcontracting
The main contract under which the work is performed is the one that is concluded between the customer and the contractor. It is the contractor who bears full responsibility for the obligations that are spelled out in this document. Only he is responsible to the customer for the fulfillment of the terms of the contract and the compliance of the object with the established rules and regulations. The difference between him and the subcontractor is that all guarantees are provided by the contractor and all responsibility, administrative and financial, rests with him.
In turn, a separate subcontract agreement is also concluded between the contractor and the subcontractor, which is subject to the same rules that are established by the Civil Code of the Russian Federation for work contracts. It, like any contract, determines the financial responsibility for non-fulfillment of contractual obligations, stipulates the composition, timing and cost of the work performed.
