What do you need from us to start?

The current drawing set with revision numbers, the specification if one exists, and the model if there is one. If part of that is missing we can still measure, with the gaps recorded as assumptions on the face of the schedule. What we will not do is silently fill a gap and let it read as a measured quantity.

Which standard do you measure to?

NRM2 for bills and pricing schedules, NRM1 elemental structure where the output feeds a cost plan . If a project is running to a different rule set, we will follow it and say so in the basis of measurement. What matters is that one rule applies throughout and that everyone pricing knows which one.

Our model is not very good. Is it still worth using?

Often yes, for the parts that are modelled properly. The judgement is which elements to trust and which to measure conventionally, and that judgement is made explicitly rather than assumed. A model that is only reliable for the frame and the envelope is still saving you time on the frame and the envelope.

Can you check quantities in a claim or final account?

Yes, and it is a frequent instruction. Remeasurement of contested work, verification of a contractor's quantities, and testing whether claimed items were already inside the original scope. That work sits alongside final accounts and disputes .

Pay Less Notice Review | Payment Disputes

01
The application, read as assessed: what was applied for, how it was presented, and whether an assessor could follow it without reconstructing it.
02
Every date in the cycle: due date, final date for payment, and the periods for each notice, taken from the contract rather than from habit.
03
The notices themselves: whether a payment notice was served, whether a pay less notice was served in time, and whether either says what it must.
04
Your exposure, stated plainly: what is payable, what is at risk, and whether there is a position worth pursuing before the next payment falls due.

The sum in dispute is usually not the reason the money is not moving. The reason is a date, a notice, or a claim nobody can follow.

A notice served a day late can change what is payable regardless of the merits, and a notice served on time but without the required detail can fail for a different reason.

An application assessed by somebody looking for reasons to pay less will find the easiest one first, and the easiest one is almost always that the claim cannot be followed from the documents attached to it.

Where the contract has been amended, the statutory framework and the contract say different things about the same deadline, and the amendment usually wins unless it does not comply, which is a question worth answering before the next cycle rather than after.

01

Contract provisions

The payment terms as written, including any amendments, and what they require of each party at each stage.

02

Application assessment

Whether the application is capable of being assessed as submitted, and what is missing if it is not.

03

Payment notice review

Whether it was served, when, by whom, and whether it states the sum considered due and the basis of calculation.

04

Pay less notice review

The same questions, against a shorter deadline, where the consequences of getting it wrong fall on the paying party.

05

Dates verified

Due date and final date for payment established from the contract, not assumed from the pattern of previous months.

06

Compliance and exposure

What follows from the position as it stands, what the next cycle requires, and what to put right before it begins.

This is a commercial and contractual assessment, not legal advice. It tells you what the contract provides, what was served and when, and what that means for the money in this cycle. Where the position turns on legal interpretation or on enforcement, you need a construction solicitor, and we will say so.

The statutory payment framework in England and Wales applies to most construction contracts, but not to a contract with a residential occupier. If you are a homeowner having work done on the house you live in, the notices and deadlines you have read about may not apply to your contract at all, and the contract itself governs.

All claims and dispute services

What happens if no pay less notice was served?

Then the position depends on what the payment notice said, and on whether the application became the notified sum. That is exactly the question the review answers, from your contract rather than from the general rule, because amended contracts change the mechanism more often than people expect.

Can you review more than one cycle?

Yes, and on a running dispute that is usually the right scope, because the pattern across several months tells you more than any single month. It is quoted separately.

Does this apply to my house extension?

Possibly not. A contract with somebody having work done on the dwelling they occupy or intend to occupy sits outside the statutory framework. The contract still governs, and we read that instead.

Will you tell us if we are in the wrong?

Yes. If the notice was valid and the position is weak, you will be told that in writing. Knowing early is worth more than finding out at adjudication.