Counterclaim Prevention
PreventionOptional monthly checkTimetable agreed at scoping
Expecting a claim against you? Identify the risks and build the records your team would need to answer it.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
Get a free report on your claim. About three minutes; no obligation.
The problem
Your main contractor may be blaming you for delays, defects or damage, with letters threatening charges or reserving rights. You need to prepare for a possible counterclaim, including one raised when you submit your final account.
Claim already arrived? See Counterclaim Defence. Deductions already taken? See Contra-Charge Claim.
The solution
We test your exposure against the subcontract and correspondence, then build the necessary evidence into your team’s existing records. We train them and support a live month.
We handle commercial facts and records. Your solicitor handles legal questions.
What you get
You receive an exposure assessment matching each likely claim to the evidence needed to answer it. Record templates and a tested system help your team respond promptly to allegations and keep the defence documents organised and accessible.
Includes a Handover Pack: key dates and sources, next steps, likely responses, scope limits and any ready-to-send letters.
Fee: Fixed fee for the exposure review and set-up, agreed after we read your subcontract and correspondence. Optional monthly checks have a fixed fee agreed first. Pause between jobs or stop at month-end.
Turnaround: the timetable is agreed in writing at scoping and then kept.
How it works
You tell us about the job
Tell us about the job and any allegations, on a free call. Then send the records listed below.
- A
The subcontract
A complete PDF or scan with every schedule and amendment, and the main contract terms it incorporates where it refers to them.
Where to find it: The job's commercial folder or the order email normally holds the signed copy.
Why we need it: The subcontract sets what your main contractor can claim against you, and what you must do to answer it. The key parts are its indemnity, damages, set-off, defects and notice clauses.
How we will use it: We read it for every way a claim could be made against you, and that list is where the exposure check starts.
- B
The correspondence with your main contractor
Every letter or email that alleges delay, defects, damage or poor performance, reserves its rights, or warns of a charge. Forward the original emails with their attachments.
Where to find it: The project inbox: search your main contractor's contacts and forward the threads whole.
Why we need it: A claim against you is usually trailed in letters and emails long before it is made. An allegation left unanswered reads later as one you accepted.
How we will use it: Each allegation is logged, rated on the records you hold, and given a written answer where one is still owed.
- C
The account and the payment record
Your applications, the Payment Notices and Pay Less Notices you have received, and every deduction or contra-charge made so far.
Where to find it: Whoever issues your applications, and your accounts package for what was actually paid.
Why we need it: Deductions already taken show where your main contractor thinks it has a claim against you. They are often the first sign of a bigger one.
How we will use it: Every deduction is traced to the allegation behind it and added to the exposure the routine has to answer.
- D
The records your teams keep now
Diaries, allocation sheets, day sheets, handover and snagging records and photographs, as they are, not tidied up.
Where to find it: The site office, the site manager's files and the team's phones.
Why we need it: The routine has to be built from what your people already produce, or they will drop it. The records as they really are show what your people will keep doing.
How we will use it: We add the fields a defence would need to the sheets they already fill in, rather than handing them a new form.
- E
Handover and condition records
Signed handovers, completion or snagging sign-offs, and photographs of finished areas, with whatever dates they carry.
Where to find it: The site manager's handover folder, the QS's completion file and the photo folders on the team's phones.
Why we need it: Defects and damage claims usually turn on the condition an area was in when you left it, which only a dated record can prove.
How we will use it: They set what the handover routine must capture from here on, and show which past areas are already exposed.
- F
Read access to the project's records, not a summary
A login to the document system, or a shared folder we can browse, holding the records themselves.
Where to find it: Wherever the project record actually lives: the document system, the shared drive or the folder on site.
Why we need it: The exposure check and any monthly check are there to find what is missing. What is missing cannot be found in a set someone has picked out and sent.
How we will use it: We sample the records themselves when we rate your exposure, and each month after if you keep the check.
Copies are fine. Send what you have and we will tell you what's missing.
- A
We read your subcontract and agree the fee
We read your subcontract and the letters so far, and tell you that day if anything needs an answer. Then we confirm the fee in writing. Nothing starts until you agree.
What you get: A written scope, timetable and fixed fee
We find where you are exposed
We look at your job as your main contractor's surveyor would. We list every way they could claim against you, and the record that would answer each. You agree the list.
What you get: A list of every way a claim could be made against you, and the record that answers each
We set up your records and train your team
We add what a defence needs to the sheets your team already uses, with a same-day way to answer any allegation in writing. Then we walk your team through it.
What you get: Your own sheets set up to defend a claim, and one file where anything can be found
You run it for a month, with us alongside
Your team runs it for a live month while we work alongside. We check the month and fix what did not work. Then you choose whether we keep checking monthly.
What you get: A note of what the month showed, and the routine corrected to match
We hand over a file that can answer a claim
Get a free report on your claim
Answer the questions below for a free PDF report by email. Allow about three minutes; choose “Not sure” where needed.
Your report explains where you stand, the next steps to take and the records to gather. It also sets out how we could help for a fixed fee, with no obligation.
Loading the questions.
Already dealing with it? Counterclaim Defence.