Escalate while the evidence is fresh
A refused variation gets harder to win every month, as people leave, records scatter and goodwill drains. If yours was properly instructed and evidenced, use your subcontract's escalation steps promptly, and remember adjudication is open to you at any time.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
Why it matters
A refused variation left to sit does not settle itself. It gets harder to win every month. The person who gave the instruction leaves. The foreman who booked the hours moves to another job. The emails get archived, and the photographs stay on a phone that gets replaced.
Your main contractor's position hardens, because a sum refused for 6 months looks like a sum that was never owed. Meanwhile your money is funding its job. The escalation steps in your subcontract are there to be used while the witnesses are still on site and the file is complete. The earlier you use them, the less they cost.
How to do it
- Set a limit at the start of the job: any properly instructed and evidenced variation refused for 2 payment cycles gets escalated.
- Read your subcontract's escalation steps once, and write them on the front of your variation register with the time limit for each.
- Write a short letter when the limit is reached, setting out the instruction, the records and the sum, and start the first step.
- Gather the file for the next step at the same time. Then, if the first step fails, you can move quickly to adjudication, a fast decision from an independent adjudicator.
Example
Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.
The facts
A subcontractor's variation for £34,000 was instructed in writing and is backed by allocation sheets and photographs. It is certified at nil two months running. The reason given is that the main contractor's client has not agreed to pay for it.
What happens
- At the second refusal, the commercial manager writes setting out the instruction, the records and the sum. The letter asks for a meeting within 14 days under the escalation clause.
- The meeting takes place the next week with the main contractor's commercial director. The project manager who gave the instruction is still on the job.
- The project manager confirms the instruction in the meeting, and the main contractor agrees £31,000 to close it.
The outcome
The £31,000 is paid in the next cycle, 4 months after the work. Left until the final account, the project manager would have gone, and the instruction would have been argued as a misunderstanding.
To have this done for you, see our Variation Claim service.