We have been underpaid once already. Do we need Underpayment Prevention as well as Underpayment Claim?
Only where the same gaps would let it happen again.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
The answer
Underpayment Claim deals with the money already lost. It tests the notices behind the low payment, values what you are actually owed and recovers it by negotiation or adjudication. Its Handover Pack records the result and prices what the gaps in your paperwork cost you on the job. It also sets out what would stop it happening again, and recommends Underpayment Prevention where the same gaps would recur. The gaps are usually in the paperwork around the valuation. An application goes late or to the wrong address. A Payment Notice is never checked against its window. A Pay Less Notice is accepted when it came too late or gave no basis. Underpayment Prevention closes those gaps. We take every date from your signed subcontracts, set your application templates to those terms and put every date in one diary across your jobs. We write a short routine for checking each notice the day it lands, prove it on one live payment cycle and hand it to your team.
Example
Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.
The facts
A drylining subcontractor has recovered £22,000 after a Pay Less Notice that arrived a day late was paid as if it were valid. It runs four other jobs with the same main contractor and the same routine.
What happens
- The Handover Pack records the recovery and prices what the missed check cost on the job.
- It finds that nobody checks notices against their windows on any of the five jobs.
- Underpayment Prevention is recommended, because the same gap would recur.
- The dates are taken from all five signed subcontracts, and the notice check is written and proved on the next live cycle.
The outcome
The next late notice is caught the day it lands, on every job, instead of being found at the final account.
To have your applications, notice dates and notice check set up and proved on a live payment cycle, see our Underpayment Prevention service.