Unpaid Variation Prevention
PreventionOptional monthly check10 working days
Get extra work recorded, priced and tracked from instruction to payment, using a routine your team can run.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
Get a free report on your claim. About three minutes; no obligation.
The problem
Extra work is being instructed verbally or by text, but changes remain unpriced or never reach the application. Without a clear record, nobody can reliably establish which variations are agreed and paid.
Variations already refused or unpaid? See Variation Claim.
The solution
We check who can instruct changes, how to confirm them and when to price them. We build the routine into your team’s work, trial it for a live month and fix any gaps. An imminent notice deadline comes first.
What you get
You receive a one-page guide to your subcontract’s variation rules, with written-confirmation templates and a register following changes through to payment. We train your team and test the routine over a live month.
Includes a Handover Pack: key dates and sources, next steps, likely responses, scope limits and any ready-to-send letters.
Fee: Fixed fee for set-up and the live month, agreed before work starts. Optional monthly checks have a fixed fee agreed first. Pause between jobs or stop at month-end.
How it works
You tell us how instructions reach your site
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, timetable and fixed fee
- A
The subcontract
A complete PDF or scan, with the instruction, variation and valuation clauses, the amendment schedule and any conditions it refers to, all in full.
Where to find it: The commercial folder or the order email holds the signed copy. If it refers to other conditions, send whatever documents you were given.
Why we need it: These clauses say who may instruct, in what form, how and when to confirm a verbal instruction, and how a change is valued. The routine is built to them.
How we will use it: We map the subcontract's rules on change first. Every part of the routine, from the authority list to the register, is built to that map.
- B
Recent live directions
A handful is enough, forwarded as the original emails and messages with dates and attachments intact.
Where to find it: The site team's inboxes and phones: the messages from your main contractor's people telling you to do something.
Why we need it: Real directions show how change actually arrives on your job, which is rarely the tidy form the subcontract imagines.
How we will use it: The confirmation routine is placed where the directions actually land, so it catches them on the day they are given.
- C
Any confirmations already issued
As issued, with their dates, and any replies they received.
Where to find it: Usually the sent items of whoever writes them, or the site instruction file.
Why we need it: They show whether your confirmations reach the right person, in time, and say what a confirmation has to say.
How we will use it: We test them for form and timing, and the confirmation template is built to fix whatever they miss.
- D
The variation register as it stands
Sent exactly as it is kept, even if it is one surveyor's spreadsheet or nothing at all.
Where to find it: Your quantity surveyor's working folder, the commercial drive, or the last application's variation schedule.
Why we need it: The routine has to replace whatever your team relies on now without losing a line of it.
How we will use it: Its entries are carried into the new register with a status on each, so the live month starts from the true position.
- E
The site records
The diaries, day sheets and photographs that captured recent directions, as they are kept, not retyped.
Where to find it: The site office and the site manager's phone, mostly.
Why we need it: When a verbal direction is denied later, these records are what stands between the work you did and doing it for free.
How we will use it: We check whether they capture what the confirmation routine needs, and fit the routine around what your people already record.
- F
Your last two applications
With their variation schedules and your main contractor's Payment Notices, as sent and received.
Where to find it: The commercial folder, or the email trail with your main contractor's quantity surveyor.
Why we need it: The routine ends in the application: a change that is confirmed and registered but never applied for is still unpaid.
How we will use it: In the live month we check the register against the application, and these show us where to start.
Copies are fine. Send what you have and we will tell you what's missing.
- A
We find where instructions get lost
We set out your subcontract's rules on change on one page. Then we check recent instructions against them, to see where they are slipping through.
What you get: A one-page summary of your subcontract's rules on change
We build the routine with your team
A list of who can instruct you, a same-day confirmation template and a register of every change. We set them up on your systems and show your team how they work.
What you get: Your confirmation template, change register and diary, built for your jobs
You run it for one live month
Your team confirms and records each instruction itself, in your name and on your systems. We are on hand to answer questions as they come up.
We check the month and hand it over
We check every instruction was confirmed and recorded, fix what did not work and hand over the routine in writing. A monthly check after that is your choice.
What you get: The written routine, corrected after the live month
We hand over a routine your team runs
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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Already dealing with it? Variation Claim.