Is design development a variation?
Not if it only fills in detail your subcontract already allowed for, but a revision that changes what you agreed to build can be.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
If revised drawings keep reopening the argument on a live job, see what to do when you are told the change is included in your scope.
The answer
Some design development just adds detail that your subcontract expected and gave someone the job of completing. Other revisions change the performance, quantity, sequence or conditions, or the work itself. Which side of the line a revision falls on depends on your signed documents, clarifications, design duties and approval process. The label on the drawing does not decide it. So compare each revision with the scope you agreed, and keep the version it replaced. Note who made the decision, and any notice or valuation route that applies. Do not assume a refinement is free, or that every upgrade gets paid. If the answer is disputed, keep that evidence together before anyone argues about the money.
Example
Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.
The facts
A cladding subcontractor's design and build package specifies standard aluminium rainscreen, and the subcontractor is responsible for completing the fixing details. Five later drawings arrive. Which are design development, and which change the agreed scope?
What happens
- The first two drawings add setting-out information, which may fall within the design development the subcontractor took on.
- The third specifies a premium finish, the fourth adds a decorative fin and the fifth extends the cladding around a stair core.
- Those three are checked against the agreed scope, who authorised them and the valuation rules.
- Each revision is recorded, and any dispute about responsibility or payment is put forward for a decision.
The outcome
The setting-out drawings may sit within design development. The finish, the fin and the stair core extension are checked against the agreed scope before anyone decides what is owed.
To have the changed items separated from your priced scope and valued, see our Variation Claim service.