My claim is in and I don't know the next move
Claims and responses are going back and forth, with disputed items, concessions and new evidence changing the picture.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
If their response takes your figures apart line by line, see what to do when the main contractor has taken your figures apart.
What's happening?
Once claims and responses start going back and forth, the position can move faster than anyone's spreadsheet. Informal and provisional points shift it too. A concession may still be sitting in the total. New records can repair one head and weaken another. A counterclaim or an offer can change the commercial decision without changing the headline figure.
The questions that matter are simple. What does each significant head support today? What is still conditional? What evidence or response is needed next? Which decision is due before the next date?
Walk into a meeting with an out-of-date total and you end up arguing about a number that is no longer true. The legal effect of anything said in the exchange is a question for your solicitor.
The solution
Bring the latest claim and response, any concessions, new records and the next decision date into one up-to-date schedule. Give every disputed, conceded, missing or conditional item a named person and a reason for the next move. Get any concession made by word of mouth into writing, so the schedule and the total agree.
Delay & Disruption Claim can pick the claim up at this point. We rebuild the schedule and negotiate from it. We prepare for adjudication, a quick decision by an independent adjudicator, only where the gap is worth it and the records hold. The schedule supports your decision. It is not a forecast of what you will recover, and it is not legal advice.
Example
Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.
The facts
A subcontractor's claim went over at £560,000. The main contractor's response values it at £290,000, adds a £75,000 counterclaim for defects and proposes a meeting in 12 days. At the last meeting the commercial manager conceded £40,000 on a variation by word of mouth, but the claim total still shows £560,000.
What happens
- New delivery records repair the materials head, moving £35,000 from conditional to supported. But the same records show the excavator claimed under prolongation was off hire for 3 weeks. That weakens the head by £18,000.
- Everything goes into one up-to-date schedule: the latest claim, the response, the concession, the new records and the meeting date.
- Each disputed, conceded, missing or conditional item gets a named person and a reason for the next move.
- The current supported position is £502,000. The concession is put in writing, so it stops being a number nobody wants to mention.
- The counterclaim is logged as a separate item, waiting for the main contractor's evidence.
- Nothing in the schedule forecasts recovery or the legal effect of the exchange. That is the solicitor's question.
The exchange in figures
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Claim as submitted | £560,000 |
| Main contractor's response | £290,000 |
| Counterclaim for defects, logged separately | £75,000 |
| Concession on a variation, now in writing | £40,000 |
| Prolongation head weakened by the off-hire period | £18,000 |
| Current supported position | £502,000 |
The outcome
At the meeting the position tabled is £502,000, not £560,000. The measured work and the variations are agreed on the documents. The prolongation head and the counterclaim are carried forward, each with a date for the main contractor's evidence.