My final account is being undervalued? Every question we answer on it, grouped by subject.
In construction, a final account is your subcontract sum adjusted for every change, claim and deduction, to show what the job is finally worth.
Build your final account as the job runs, and submit it when your own signed subcontract says, in the form it asks for.
Prepare a final account anyway, but do not invent a legal due date or notice timetable for it.
Yes, if a conclusive evidence clause makes the final certificate binding on the matters it names and nobody challenges it in time.
A low offer can come from gaps in your evidence, genuine differences in value, risk, or plain commercial pressure.
Not always, but do not treat it as just an opening offer until you have checked what it does under your subcontract.
Only after you have checked the figure and the payment terms, and your solicitor has checked the rights you are giving up.
Yes, where the Construction Act covers your subcontract, a final account dispute can go to adjudication at any time.
Only if what you can prove and actually collect outweighs the cost of preparing, running and enforcing it, and your own time.
It should set out your account, their assessment, every difference with your reasons and evidence, the sum due and a date to reply.
Check what your subcontract required your main contractor to do and by when, then stop chasing and write once, formally.
No: where the job is nearly finished, we start with the review, testing your final account as it stands before it goes in.
You do: whether an offer is taken is always your decision, and the settlement wording goes to your solicitor before you sign.