I've been sent off site and told to come back when it's ready
The area wasn't ready, the gang was sent away, and now we're paying to leave, come back and pick up where we left off.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
What's happening?
Your main contractor tells you to leave an area, or the site, until it is ready. The slab is late, the scaffold is not up, or the trade before you is behind. The gang goes to another job or goes home. Plant is taken away or left standing. When the call comes to return, nobody writes down how long it takes to get back up to speed.
Whether you can get that cost back depends on your subcontract. It turns on the route it gives for the event and the notice it requires. It also turns on how it values the extra cost, whether it calls it loss and expense or something else. Then you have to show the facts. Who told you to leave, and when? What went off site and what stayed? What did it cost to come back? How long did the gang take to reach its old output?
Every part of that cost is real. But none of it shows as one line anyone can point to. If nobody records it, it disappears into your labour and hire costs.
The solution
Write down the instruction to leave on the day it is given, with who gave it and why. Log what went off site and what stayed, and your labour and hire costs while you are away. Log the cost of coming back too. Send the notice your subcontract requires, by its route, before the gang returns. Do not wait until you know the cost.
Delay & Disruption Claim values the stand-down, the standing plant, the return and the lost output from those records. The period comes from a named source, not from us, and we put the figure to your main contractor. Delay & Disruption Loss Prevention sets up a same-day event log and notice route, so the next stand-down is recorded as it happens.
Example
Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.
The facts
A drylining subcontractor's gang of eight is told on a Monday to leave the fourth floor. The windows are not in, and the gang is to come back when the floor is watertight. The site manager records the instruction that morning.
What happens
- The diary entry names the main contractor's project manager who gave the instruction, the reason given and the time the gang left.
- The notice goes out on the Tuesday, by the route the subcontract names. It says the cost is being recorded and will follow.
- Five of the gang go to another job. Three stay for 2 days to secure materials and are recorded as unproductive, at £1,050.
- The scissor lifts stay on hire for the 15 working days the floor is closed: £2,250 on the hire invoices.
- The gang returns 3 weeks later. Moving materials back and setting the floor up again takes all eight a day: £1,400.
- Output in the first week back is a fifth below the gang's recorded output before it left. The allocation sheets put that shortfall at £2,050.
The stand-down in figures
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Two unproductive days securing materials | £1,050 |
| Lifts standing on hire | £2,250 |
| Remobilisation, one day for eight people | £1,400 |
| Lost output in the first week back | £2,050 |
| Total | £6,750 |
The outcome
The £6,750 goes to the main contractor with the diary entry, the notice and the hire invoices attached. £6,000 is agreed at the next valuation. The difference is part of the first week's lost output.