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Cold review the figures before they go out

Whoever built a claim cannot review it properly, because they read what they meant to write, not what is on the page. Give it to someone with no stake in it, and tell them to attack it the way your main contractor's surveyor will.

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

Why it matters

The person who wrote a claim reads what they meant to write. They see the cross-reference they meant to add and the split between heads they explained in a meeting. They see the rate they know came from an invoice, even though the page does not say so. A stranger sees the page as it is, which is how the other side's surveyor will see it. An hour of hostile reading finds the bare rate, the double count and the paragraph that contradicts the build-up. It finds them while there is still time to fix them. Otherwise you find them in the response, with the deadline for your reply already running.

How to do it

  1. Book the reviewer's time as soon as the submission date is set, not when the claim is finished.
  2. Give them the claim exactly as it will go in, with one instruction: attack it as the other side will.
  3. Ask them to list every line they would strike, every figure they cannot trace and every point where the claim contradicts itself.
  4. Fix what they find, and record what was changed and why.
  5. Decide what to do with anything that cannot be fixed in time: take it out, or send it knowing it is weak.

Example

Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.

The facts

A subcontractor's £160,000 disruption claim is due on Friday. On Tuesday the surveyor who built it hands it to a colleague from another job. The instruction is to find what the main contractor's surveyor will find.

What happens

  1. The colleague reads for 90 minutes and lists 11 points. They include two labour rates with no source and a plant item in two heads. The written account also covers a period the build-up does not.
  2. The two rates are sourced from payroll, the £4,800 plant duplicate is removed, and the written account is corrected to match the build-up.
  3. Three points cannot be fixed in time, so the items behind them, worth £11,000, are taken out rather than sent weak.

The outcome

The claim goes in on Friday at £144,200. When the response lands, it raises none of the 11 points, and the colleague's 90 minutes cost less than any one of them would have.

To have this done for you, see our Delay & Disruption Claim service.