Construction claims and dispute resolution: getting to the number, and the cause.
Analysis of what was owed, what was paid, what has gone wrong with the building and what it will cost to put right, for contractors, employers, homeowners and their advisers.
Construction claims and disputes we help resolve.
Most construction disputes turn on money in the end. Clear quantum analysis, done early, shortens them.
Final account disputes
Independent assessment of the final account: measured works, variations, provisional sums, loss and expense and retention, tested against the contract and the record. Presented so that the gap between the parties is explained item by item.
Interim payment and notices
Review of interim applications, payment notices and pay less notices for validity and value under the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 as amended and the Scheme. Advice on the exposure created by a missed or defective notice, and support in adjudication where it follows.
Overpayment and recovery
Where an employer believes it has paid more than the works were worth, or a contractor believes it has been underpaid, a whole-account or sampled valuation that establishes the true value of the works at the relevant date. See how a quantity surveyor tests an alleged overpayment.
Defects and incomplete work
Inspection and diagnosis of the defect, then the scope and reasonable cost of remedial works, with a clear line between defect, incomplete work and betterment. A structural engineer or other specialist is brought in where the cause needs engineering analysis. See Defects and survey disputes.
Professional negligence
Whether a surveyor, quantity surveyor or contract administrator met the standard of a reasonably competent practitioner: what a Home Survey or inspection should have reported, whether valuations and certificates were properly prepared, and the cost of putting right what was missed. Where a claim is measured by diminution in value, that opinion is for a separately instructed Registered Valuer; the costed remedial scope is prepared so it can be used by them.
Neighbour and adjoining-owner disputes
Water ingress from a neighbouring property, shared roofs, chimneys and party structures, boundary walls and works carried out next door: establishing cause in building terms, the works needed and their cost.
Professional negligence support
Analysis of cost advice, valuations, certificates and payment administration by quantity surveyors, contract administrators and project managers against the standard of a reasonably competent practitioner, and quantification of the resulting loss.
Termination and abandonment
Valuation of works at the date of termination, cost to complete, and the account between the parties under the contract's termination provisions.
Method that stands up to challenge.
The analysis starts with the contract: what was agreed, how the works were to be valued and paid, and what notices were required. The record is then assembled: applications, valuations, certificates, instructions, drawings, correspondence and site evidence. Only then is the valuation built.
Where the account is large, a testing approach is agreed in advance: whole-account review, category testing or sampling across periods, with the choice and its limits explained in the report. The aim is a result that is proportionate to the sum in dispute and robust enough to survive scrutiny.
Deliverables
- Advisory note or report, written for the reader who has to act on it
- Formula-bearing schedules that can be checked and re-run
- Statement of documents reviewed and documents requested but not provided
- Clear separation of fact, assumption and opinion
The question is rarely who is right. It is what the contract and the records show the works were worth.Baker Accordia approach
Clients and advisers.
Solicitors and barristers
Quantum analysis to support pre-action correspondence, pleadings, mediation and settlement. Information for solicitors.
Contractors and subcontractors
Final account preparation and defence, payment notice disputes and recovery of sums due.
Employers and developers
Review of applications and accounts, overpayment analysis and cost-to-complete assessments.
Homeowners
Independent valuation of works and defects where a residential project has gone wrong.
Discuss an instruction in confidence.
Early conversations are without obligation and treated as confidential. Conflicts are checked before any detail of the dispute is discussed.