A Contingency is an item found within a Bill of quantities (BoQ). This item refers to unforeseeable costs or risks likely to be incurred during the contract.

There are two types of contingencies. The first refers to a specific item, e.g., ‘additional alterations to services when installing said shower unit’, where an item for alterations to existing services is not contained within the BoQ but some work is envisaged.

The second type of sum is where money can be allocated to any item, within the BoQ, in the same way as the above example or used as ‘additional work to be undertaken by the contractor, at the request of the contract administrator’.