Can I be paid more than the letter of intent cap?
Possibly, but not automatically: it depends on the letter's wording and on what was agreed or done after the cap was reached.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
The answer
A clearly worded cap can limit what you recover, even if the work carried on past it. A later agreement to raise the cap, or a full subcontract formed afterwards, can change that. Which applies on your job is a question for your solicitor, read against the letter and the correspondence. What you can do now is prove the value. Measure the work, and price it at agreed rates where they reach and from your costs where they do not. Then reconcile it against the payments. Keep every instruction issued after the cap, every payment above it and every discussion of raising it. Those are the facts the legal answer turns on.
Example
Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.
The facts
A subcontractor on a letter of intent capped at £60,000 has been paid £180,000. It values its work at £310,000. The main contractor says the cap is all that was authorised.
What happens
- The subcontractor measures and values the work, and reconciles the £180,000 of payments against it.
- It gathers the instructions issued after the cap, the payments above it and the emails about the unsigned subcontract.
- It sends the file to its solicitor with the valuation.
The outcome
The argument about the cap and the £130,000 balance arrive together. The main contractor's own payments above the cap are on the record.
Our Letter of Intent Claim measures and values the work beyond the paper, so your solicitor argues your right to payment with the figure already proved.