Take their own assessment apart line by line
When your main contractor replaces your quotation with its own assessment, sending the quotation back tests nothing. Set the assessment beside your records line by line: people, equipment, materials, subcontracted work and the Fee. Answer each cut with the record of what the event actually cost. Concede the cuts that are fair: it makes the rest harder to resist.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
Why it matters
An own assessment usually arrives as a single figure with a short summary. The natural reply is to send the quotation back with a letter saying it was right, and that gives the assessor nothing new. Own assessments tend to cut the same things. People are priced below the payroll and hours below the allocation sheets. Equipment hire is shortened, forecast cost left out and the Fee applied to too little. Each is a question of fact your records answer. A reply that takes each item in turn, shows the record and accepts the fair cuts has to be dealt with. It is also the figure that goes forward if agreement fails.
How to do it
- Ask for the details of the assessment if only a total was given, and put any period for raising a disagreement in the diary.
- Set the assessment beside your quotation, one line per item: people, equipment, materials, subcontracted work and the Fee.
- Find the record that settles each difference: the payroll, the allocation sheets, the hire records, the invoices.
- Concede the cuts the records support, and rebuild the rest from the cost components the contract lists.
- Send the rebuilt figure with the records attached through the contract's communication system, and ask for a meeting to agree it.
Example
Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.
The facts
A mechanical subcontractor quotes £38,000 for rerouting services around a moved riser. The main contractor decides the quotation is wrong, and notifies its own assessment of £22,500 as a single figure with a two-line summary.
What happens
- The subcontractor asks for the details of the assessment, and puts the period for raising a disagreement in the diary.
- The details show 310 fitter hours against 460 on the allocation sheets, and nothing for the scissor lift on hire for the 4 weeks the work ran.
- One cut is fair: the quotation priced the fittings at list price, and the invoices show a trade discount of £1,200.
- The rebuilt figure comes to £36,800, and goes back with the allocation sheets, hire records and invoices attached.
The event in figures
| Position | Amount |
|---|---|
| Quotation | £38,000 |
| Main contractor's own assessment | £22,500 |
| Rebuilt from the records | £36,800 |
| Agreed | £35,000 |
The outcome
The parties agree £35,000 at a meeting a fortnight later. Answered by sending the £38,000 quotation back, the £22,500 would have stood.
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