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Write down the day you became aware of the event

The 8 weeks for notifying a compensation event run from when you became aware of it, not from when the cost became clear. Record that date the day it happens, with the diary entry, email or photograph that proves it. If your main contractor later says the notification was late, the argument is about that one date. The side with a record made at the time usually wins.

Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.

Why it matters

Most arguments about a late notification are really about when the clock started. Your main contractor counts from the first email that mentioned the problem. Your team counts from the day the cost became clear. The test is awareness of the event, and that is usually earlier than anyone in the office remembers. A dated record made the day it happened fixes the start honestly. It shows the notification was in time where it was, and how many weeks are left where it was not.

How to do it

  1. Add an awareness column to the event log, and fill it in from the day anyone on site or in the office first sees a possible event.
  2. Attach the proof of the date: the diary entry, the email, the photograph with its original file data, or the meeting minute.
  3. Count the notification deadline from that date using the period in your signed subcontract, not the standard form, and put it in the diary.
  4. Record the earliest date the evidence could support where the awareness date is uncertain, and work to the deadline that gives.

Example

Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.

The facts

A drainage subcontractor's gang hits an unrecorded brick culvert on a Tuesday while digging a drain run, on an NEC subcontract with the unamended 8-week period. The foreman writes it up in the diary that day with photographs. The QS hears about it at the monthly cost review 4 weeks later.

What happens

  1. The event log is filled in from the foreman's diary for the Tuesday, with the chainage and photographs, not from the day of the cost review.
  2. Counted from the Tuesday, 4 of the 8 weeks are left, and the notification goes out that week through the contract's communication system.
  3. When the main contractor later questions the timing, the diary, photographs and log all carry the same Tuesday. The notification is plainly in time.

The outcome

The event is accepted and assessed at £30,000 on the records. Counting from the cost review, the team would have thought it had 8 weeks when it had 4.

To have this set up for you, see our Compensation Event Loss Prevention service.