Can I get paid for a variation with no written instruction?
Sometimes, but it is much harder without a written variation instruction, so confirm every verbal direction in writing as soon as you get it.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
The answer
Your subcontract sets how an instruction must be given and how a verbal one is confirmed. Follow that procedure, not a habit from the last job. In the confirmation, record who said what, when and where. Name the work affected and any price or time point still open. Be careful what you rely on. A deadline you set yourself, or an email nobody answered, does not on its own turn a direction into an authorised instruction. Keep the original messages, texts and notes. If the person's authority is questioned later, those originals are your evidence.
Example
Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.
The facts
A subcontractor has carried out changed work on a verbal direction, with no written instruction, and wants to be paid for it. The first move is to get the instruction on the record.
What happens
- The subcontractor sends a factual confirmation through the route its subcontract requires, naming the drawing or conversation the direction came from.
- It records the response period, if the subcontract sets one.
The outcome
Any response period comes from the subcontract; the confirmation cannot create one.
To have every verbal instruction confirmed in writing the day it is given, see our Unpaid Variation Prevention service.