My notices keep going out late, or not at all
Things happen on site every week, and by the time the office hears about them the notice period has nearly gone.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
What's happening?
Something happens on site: an area isn't handed over, or a drawing changes. The site team sees it first. The office hears later, and nobody checks the subcontract for the notice it needs. Without a same-day link between site and office, the event gets logged on site and the notice never goes.
Notice rules differ by subcontract and by event. What triggers a notice, who sends it, to whom, how, what it must say and by when can all sit in different places. They may be spread across the conditions, the amendments and the schedules. A phone call or an ordinary email may record the event without meeting the notice rule.
What a late or missing notice costs you depends on the exact wording and the evidence. You do not want to find out at the final account.
The solution
Link the site team to the person who sends notices, on the day an event is seen. That takes three things: an event log, a named person with a deputy, and a live deadline diary built from your subcontract's notice clauses. The named person checks the requirement that day, then records the deadline and the proof of sending.
Delay & Disruption Loss Prevention builds that route from your signed subcontract and proves it on a live month. The optional monthly check then samples whether events reached the named person in time. It never replaces same-day action on a short notice period.
Example
Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.
The facts
A roofing subcontractor's site manager arrives on a Tuesday to find the north elevation scaffold has not been handed over. The crew is stood down. Under the new routine, he reports it that morning to the person named to handle notices, rather than mentioning it on the weekly call.
What happens
- The named person reads the signed subcontract the same day. The event must be notified within 7 days to the main contractor's contracts manager, by email and post. The notice must state the cost effect as far as it is known.
- The deadline goes into the live deadline diary. The notice goes on the Wednesday, and the email and postal receipts are filed against the entry.
- Over the next quarter, the site reports 11 events on the day they are spotted.
- Nine need no notice and are recorded as checked.
- Two need one, and both are notified in time. They carry £16,000 of standing and remobilisation cost into the account, with the notices attached. There is no argument about whether the main contractor knew.
- The monthly check does not find any of these events itself. It samples the reporting, and finds one event that reached the named person 3 days after the site saw it.
The outcome
The £16,000 goes into the account with its notices attached. Because of the late report the check found, a deputy is named to cover the days the person handling notices is away.