Variation Claim
ClaimTimetable agreed at scoping
Extra work unpaid or valued too low? We check the instructions, price the work and build your claim.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
Get a free report on your claim. About three minutes; no obligation.
The problem
Instructed extras are being treated as original scope, or variation prices have been cut or ignored. Dayworks and verbal instructions may also lack signed confirmation.
NEC job? See Compensation Event Claim. Claiming delay costs too? See Delay & Disruption Claim.
The solution
We protect urgent notice dates, test the evidence and value each change under your subcontract. You choose what to claim and approve it before submission in your name.
We negotiate and, if you choose adjudication, prepare the figures. Your solicitor handles legal questions. No outcome is guaranteed.
What you get
You receive an evidenced valuation showing the strong items and the gaps, followed by your variation claim and responses to objections. The final record identifies items paid, agreed, decided or dropped, and those held for the final account.
Includes a Handover Pack: key dates and sources, next steps, likely responses, scope limits and any ready-to-send letters.
Fee: Fixed fee agreed after we see the records. Each later stage has its own fixed fee agreed before it starts.
Turnaround: the timetable is agreed in writing at scoping and then kept.
How it works
Claim stage: Event
You tell us what happened
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, fixed fee and timetable
- A
The subcontract
A complete PDF or scan, with the instruction and valuation clauses, the pricing schedule and the priced documents or rates, all in full.
Where to find it: The commercial folder or the order email. The priced documents are often a separate file, so check they come too.
Why we need it: These documents show whether each change was properly instructed and which valuation rule applies to it.
How we will use it: We record the instruction rules and fix the valuation rule for each change from them, before any figure is argued.
- B
The scope you priced
The tender drawings and specification your price was based on, with their revision letters, and any clarifications or exclusions you sent with it.
Where to find it: Your estimator's tender file, and the list of documents in the subcontract.
Why we need it: Where your main contractor says a change was always included, the answer is in what you priced against, not in what was built.
How we will use it: We compare each disputed item with the scope you priced, drawing by drawing, and split what changed from what was included.
- C
The variations in dispute and both sides' valuations
Native Excel spreadsheets showing quantities, rates and build-ups, not PDF printouts.
Where to find it: Your quantity surveyor holds yours; your main contractor's arrived attached to an email, a Payment Notice or an assessment.
Why we need it: The dispute lives in the gap between the two build-ups, and we can only take theirs apart line by line if we can open it.
How we will use it: We compare both against the correct basis, adopt what is right in each, and build the case for the difference.
- D
The instruction trail for each variation
The instructions, confirmations, marked-up drawings, emails and messages behind each change, with their dates intact.
Where to find it: The site instruction file, the inboxes and phones of whoever took the direction, and the drawing register.
Why we need it: Most refused variations are refused on the instruction, and the evidence rating for each one starts here.
How we will use it: We rate each variation on its instruction and authority. Where a confirmation period is still open, we write the confirmation for you to send.
- E
The records behind your figures
The measures, daywork sheets, timesheets, allocation sheets and supplier quotations, as they are kept.
Where to find it: The site office files and your quantity surveyor's working folders.
Why we need it: A rate can be argued with; a record can only be answered. The valuation that wins is the one whose numbers trace back to evidence.
How we will use it: Each element of the valuation we build cites the record behind it, which is what forces your main contractor to engage.
- F
The exchanges to date
Forwarded as the original emails, dates and attachments intact.
Where to find it: The thread between your commercial team and your main contractor's.
Why we need it: Positions already taken, and figures already conceded, shape what can still be argued and what is already banked.
How we will use it: We answer your main contractor's points from their own correspondence, holding them to what they have already accepted.
- G
Any date running now
The date and what it is for: a Pay Less Notice to answer, a confirmation period, an adjudication timetable.
Where to find it: The latest notice or letter from your main contractor, or your own diary if the date was set by phone.
Why we need it: A date that falls this week decides what has to be done first, before the wider work starts.
How we will use it: We put it in the diary with its source and deal with it first, so nothing closes while we read the file.
Copies are fine. Send what you have and we will tell you what's missing.
- A
Claim stages: Notice, Entitlement, Evidence, Quantum and Assembly
We check what you can prove and what it is worth
We check how each variation was instructed and how strong the evidence is. You pick which to pursue, and we value them as your subcontract says, backed by your records.
What you get: A priced list of your variations, with our advice on what to do next
You approve what goes out
Nothing goes to your main contractor until you have seen every figure and said yes. It goes in your name.
Claim stage: Resolution
We negotiate to get you paid
We answer their reply point by point and negotiate what is still open. Anything agreed is put in writing the same day.
What you get: A written record of everything agreed
We prepare for adjudication, if it comes to that
If they still will not pay, you decide whether to take it to adjudication. We prepare the figures and evidence for it, and check the decision is paid.
What you get: The figures and evidence for the adjudication
We close out and price what the gaps cost
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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Prevent it next time
Put a routine in place to reduce the risk of this happening again. Unpaid Variation Prevention.