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Keep entitlement and quantum separate

Argue entitlement first, meaning that you are owed something at all, and quantum second, meaning how much. Blur the two and your main contractor will attack the number to avoid conceding the principle.

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

Why it matters

If your main contractor does not accept that you are owed anything, it will happily spend the meeting on your rates. Every hour spent on the number is an hour in which the principle is never conceded. Write the two arguments together and a weak rate becomes a reason to doubt the event. A doubted event becomes a reason to pay nothing. Keep them apart and the principle can be agreed on its own, under the subcontract or at law. The talk about money then starts from a conceded principle, and the only question left is how much.

How to do it

  1. Write the case for each head's principle first: the event, the subcontract basis, the notice given and the record of what caused it.
  2. Write the money side separately: the build-up, the records and the source of every rate.
  3. Ask your main contractor to agree the principle, head by head, before any meeting on value.
  4. Record each agreed principle in writing before moving to the number.
  5. Answer any attack on the number with the number, and do not reopen the principle.

Example

Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.

The facts

A roofing subcontractor claims £52,000 for re-sequencing its work after late access. The main contractor's first reply attacks the labour rates and says nothing about the late access itself.

What happens

  1. The subcontractor replies asking the main contractor to agree that late access was its responsibility, citing the notices and diary entries.
  2. A fortnight later, the main contractor confirms in writing that it accepts the principle.
  3. The meeting on the money then deals only with rates. The subcontractor's payroll records support £38 an hour against the £42 claimed.

The outcome

The head settles at £47,000. The reduction reflects the rate correction alone, not a compromise on whether the event counted at all.

To have this done for you, see our Final Account Claim service.