Can a final account dispute go to adjudication?
Yes, where the Construction Act covers your subcontract, a final account dispute can go to adjudication at any time.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
The answer
The right comes from section 108 of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996, subject to your subcontract and the law that applies. You can refer the whole account or a single head. Before you choose, check the subcontract, whether the Act covers it and whether an adjudicator can decide the point. Check the notice history, the procedure that applies and any finality or settlement term already in place. A whole account brings many heads and many questions of evidence. A single head is narrower and easier to manage. Which to refer is your choice, made on the advice of whoever will run the adjudication, not a fixed rule. Pin down the dispute and your evidence with them first, and do not assume a timetable for getting paid.
Example
Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.
The facts
A cladding subcontractor's account has been open for 8 months. It holds variations, delay claims, set-offs and a retention balance, totalling about £90,000. The subcontractor is weighing whether the dispute can go to adjudication.
What happens
- Before choosing a route, the subcontractor identifies which issue is actually in dispute.
- The contract and the payment records are gathered together.
- Any finality or settlement terms in the account are checked.
- The adviser who would run the adjudication is asked whether it can be heard, what to include and when.
The outcome
A £25,000 retention item may be easier to define than the whole account, but no referral, decision or recovery is taken for granted.
To have the money side of an adjudication on a deadlocked head built for whoever conducts it, see our Final Account Claim service.