Price Rise Claim
ClaimTimetable agreed at scoping
Costs risen since your quotation? We check whether your subcontract offers a recovery route and calculate the claim.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
Get a free report on your claim. About three minutes; no obligation.
The problem
Your price-rise claim has been refused or reduced, or delays and changes have pushed purchases into more expensive months. A contractual price-adjustment clause may also have gone unused.
Part of a wider dispute? See Variation Claim or Delay & Disruption Claim.
The solution
We protect urgent notice dates and test routes through price adjustments, changes or delay. Where no route supports recovery, we say so. You approve the claim; we negotiate or prepare adjudication figures.
Any delay period must come from you or your programming specialist.
What you get
You receive a written assessment of the available recovery routes and calculations supported by invoices and price indices, with double counting removed. We record agreed, decided and outstanding sums and check payments against that record.
Includes a Handover Pack: key dates and sources, next steps, likely responses, scope limits and any ready-to-send letters.
Fee: Fixed fee agreed in writing after we see the evidence. Each later stage has its own fixed fee agreed first.
Turnaround: the timetable is agreed in writing at scoping and then kept.
How it works
Claim stage: Event
You tell us what has gone up
Start with a free call. Agree the scope, fixed fee and timetable in writing, then send the records listed below.
What you get: A written scope, fixed fee and timetable
- A
The signed subcontract
A complete PDF with all schedules and amendments, the fluctuations option or price adjustment clause and its annexes included.
Where to find it: The commercial folder or the order email.
Why we need it: Which routes can recover the rise, and each one's base date, qualifying items, method and notice conditions, are set by the subcontract. A deleted clause changes the answer entirely.
How we will use it: It shows every route the rise can take and the rules each one runs on.
- B
The base date and tender pricing
Your priced tender or quotation and the supplier quotes behind it, exactly as priced at the base date, not a re-priced or updated version.
Where to find it: Your estimating files, or wherever the tender documents are kept.
Why we need it: Every movement is measured from this starting point. Without it, the claim has nothing to measure against and the figure comes out wrong.
How we will use it: It fixes the starting prices every period's movement is measured against.
- C
The cost and purchase records
Supplier price increase notices, orders, invoices and payroll for the affected periods, as native exports where they exist.
Where to find it: Your accounts system, the purchase ledger and your buyer's inbox.
Why we need it: The rise is computed from what was actually bought and paid, period by period, and the increase notices date each movement.
How we will use it: They supply each period's qualifying amounts and the date each rise took effect.
- D
The claim or assessment received, if there is one
As issued, in its original spreadsheet where you have it.
Where to find it: Attached to the application or assessment it arrived with.
Why we need it: An assessment is checked by working it through again, and that needs the build-up, not the total.
How we will use it: We work its sums through again and mark where it departs from the clause.
- E
The applications and the account
The payment applications and the account, showing where price rises have been claimed or paid so far, and the instruction for any changed work a rise sits inside.
Where to find it: Your quantity surveyor's working files, and the formal correspondence file for the instructions.
Why we need it: The claim has to reconcile with what has already been claimed and paid, or it counts the same rise twice. A rise inside changed work is valued with that variation, so its instruction dates the change.
How we will use it: We reconcile each head against what is already in the account, and value a rise inside changed work with its variation.
- F
The notices and the delay position
Any notices the clause required, as dated PDFs, and where the work ran late, the delay position as you or your planner hold it.
Where to find it: The formal correspondence file, and your planner if the periods are disputed.
Why we need it: Notice conditions decide what the clause lets through, and where a rise lands in a delayed period the period is taken from your position, not analysed here.
How we will use it: We check the conditions head by head and adopt the delay position you supply.
Copies are fine. Send what you have and we will tell you what's missing.
- A
Claim stages: Notice, Entitlement, Evidence, Quantum and Assembly
We find what can pay for each rise
We read your subcontract and its deadlines, find what could pay for each rise and work out each one from your records. Then we report what you can recover.
What you get: A written report of what you can recover, how, and what we recommend
You approve the claim and send it
Nothing goes to your main contractor until you have read it and said yes. It goes in your name, with the invoices and price records behind every figure.
What you get: The claim and covering letter, ready to send in your name
Claim stage: Resolution
We negotiate to get it paid
We read the reply, answer each point with the evidence and negotiate the rest. Anything agreed is put in writing, and we check the money arrives.
What you get: A written record of what was agreed
We prepare for adjudication, if it comes to that
If talks stall, you decide whether to settle, go to adjudication or stop. If you go to adjudication, we prepare the figures and evidence for it.
What you get: The figures and evidence for the adjudication
We close out the claim and hand over the lessons
Get a free report on your claim
Answer the questions below for a free PDF report by email. Allow about three minutes; choose “Not sure” where needed.
Your report explains where you stand, the next steps to take and the records to gather. It also sets out how we could help for a fixed fee, with no obligation.
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Prevent it next time
Put a routine in place to reduce the risk of this happening again. Price Rise Loss Prevention.