Answer a default notice in writing, inside its period
A default notice gives you only days to answer, and silence leaves your main contractor's version of the facts as the only one on file. A written reply inside the period, with your records attached, puts your side next to it.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
Why it matters
A default notice is usually the first formal step towards termination, and the period it gives you is short. If that period passes without a written answer, your main contractor's next notice can end the subcontract. The file then holds only its account of why. A written reply showing the resources on site, the access given and the directions dealt with gives it a reason to think again. If it does not, your solicitor has the facts to work with. The reply costs a morning; silence can cost the rest of the subcontract.
How to do it
- Fix the date the notice arrived, from the post log or the email, and count the period from that date.
- Gather the records that answer the default named: labour returns, diaries, access and release dates, and what was done about each direction.
- Write the reply within the period: the facts, the records attached, and what you are doing now, without arguing the law.
- Send the notice and the reply to your solicitor the same day, and put the date a termination notice could follow in the diary.
Example
Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.
The facts
A drylining subcontractor receives a notice saying it has not removed defective partitions on level two, as directed 3 weeks earlier. The main contractor may terminate if the default continues for 10 days.
What happens
- The notice arrived by email on a Monday, so the 10 days are counted from then and the end date goes in the diary.
- The records show the direction covered six bays. Four were stripped and rebuilt, with dated photographs and a signed inspection sheet.
- The last two bays are waiting on a revised setting-out drawing. The subcontractor has asked the main contractor for it twice by email.
- The reply goes on the Wednesday with the photographs, the inspection sheet and the two requests attached. It gives a date for the last two bays once the drawing arrives.
The outcome
The drawing is issued the following week, the two bays are rebuilt within 4 days, and no termination notice follows. The file shows the default was answered inside its period, with the records to prove it.
To have this set up for you, see our Termination Prevention service.