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Notify first and argue later

A short notice on the day keeps your right to be paid; waiting until you know the cost can lose you the whole claim. Most subcontracts want the notice first and the money later, and if it comes to nothing, the notice has cost you nothing.

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

Why it matters

Waiting until you know the cost feels responsible, but it is the most expensive habit on site. The notice period runs from the event, not from the day you can price it. A fortnight waiting for a supplier's quote is a fortnight gone from a 14 day window. Your main contractor does not need the figure at this stage. The point of the notice is to tell it the event has happened, so it can act. A short notice saying what happened, when, and that the cost will follow keeps the door open. Silence closes it, and no later quote, however accurate, can open it again.

How to do it

  1. Send a notice on the day the event happens, saying what happened, when, under which clause, and that the cost will follow.
  2. Keep it to a paragraph, and do not wait for a price, a drawing or a meeting.
  3. Put a date in the diary to send the costed details once the figures are in.
  4. Write a short line closing the notice if the event turns out to cost nothing, so the file shows it was honest.

Example

Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.

The facts

A subcontractor must give notice of any cost event within 14 days under its subcontract. On a Tuesday, one of the main contractor's own trades cuts through the subcontractor's finished containment run, and the subcontractor is told to make good. The supplier cannot price the replacement material for 10 days.

What happens

  1. On the Wednesday, the commercial manager sends a one paragraph notice: the damage, the date, the clause, and that the cost is being worked out.
  2. The supplier's price arrives on day 11. The costed details follow on day 13: £4,800 of materials and £2,400 of labour.
  3. The main contractor's surveyor asks for photos, which the site manager took on the Tuesday.

The outcome

The £7,200 is paid in the next cycle. Sent on day 13 as the first the main contractor heard of it, the notice would have left no time to answer questions. On day 15 it would have been worth nothing.

To have this set up for you, see our Delay & Disruption Loss Prevention service.