QUANTITY SURVEYING SERVICES
and
CONSTRUCTION ESTIMATING SERVICES

Progress Claims:  We help you stay cash positive and protect your interests. We achieve this with fair, accurate valuations, processed on time and in line with statutory and contractual payment cycles.

As construction industry contractors, you know the importance of ‘getting valuations in’ upstream. And getting interim certificates and payments from the client.  It’s about assessing value at a given point in the contract cycle, then proposing properly supported valuations and getting paid. Equally, for subcontractors’ ‘downstream’ valuations, there’s constant pressure to keep atop their work to ensure cashflow (while avoiding overpayment).

Our surveying services are a smart investment

Getting valuations in, interim certifications and maintaining cash flow happens against the ever-changing, complex background of the project. If you’ve dozens of other pressing tasks, but limited in-house valuation capacity, our quantity surveyor’s skills and experience could prove to be a smart investment.

Here are some of our services:

• Advice on contractual and statutory payment cycles
• Remeasurement
• Preliminaries assessments
• Materials off-site vesting and payments
• Variation recovery
• Preparing interim and final payment applications
• Raising interim and final notifications and certificates
• Securing retention release

A key to maximising cash flow

We’re told we’re good at what we do. This includes ensuring that all your entitlements are applied for correctly, in line with relevant contractual payment mechanisms.

In fact, we’re a key to all the benefits of maintaining positive cash flow and generally protecting your interests. Think of us as the resource that helps your project run smoothly, to budget and to schedule. Imagine what that means for your industry reputation.

Cash is king and timely, accurate valuations, whether on percentage completion to date or stage payment basis, are vital for cash flow management.

Whether we’re getting you correct stage payments, or ensuring appropriate valuations to subcontractors, we’re a powerful ally. Especially at valuation time when you face street-smart subcontractors or a zealous client-side PQS.

Achieving fair, successful valuations

The process of valuation and payments for work completed has been likened to a series of ‘arm-wrestling matches’ between contract signatories. Fair, successful, valuations and payments rely on timeliness, accuracy, persuasively putting the case for variations and supporting it with robust data.

Understanding contractors’ payment mechanisms is also essential to avoid falling foul of technicalities. We’re sure you won’t want to give anyone legitimate grounds for not paying you (and negatively affecting your cash flow). With commercial pressures on clients, main contractors and subcontractors, some people may be tempted to seek any legitimate opportunity to delay payment. In such circumstances, experience shows that our refined, yet always gentlemanly, ‘arm-wrestling’ skills are invaluable.

Whether it’s for interim valuations and final valuations, we’re fluent with various main contract forms, bespoke forms and contractual amendments.

Getting you everything you’re entitled to

On-time applications, often reached by working with the client’s PQS, must be followed by timely interim certificates and notification of payments due. Not doing this can negatively affect cash flow and increase the possibility of delays. At worst, these could mean contractual claims or, in extremis, contractual disputes. As a skilled QS, we keep on top of all aspects and make sure you get everything you’re entitled to…

Maximising opportunities of valuation involves more than just measurement skills. It’s about ‘understanding what we’re building’ (where possible, ‘better than the other guy’), because knowledge and experience is power.

It’s also about clearly understanding architect, main contractor and subcontractor perspectives on contract terms. Whatever our terms of engagement, and who we negotiate with for you, you’ll always find us scrupulously fair, assertive and willing to take a robust position. As stated elsewhere, we always remember that we operate in a hard commercial world where your cash flow is king.

Right-first-time valuations and applications

That’s why, over the years, we’ve become skilled at getting valuations and applications for payment right first time. This relies on the following:

• Complying with project stages
• Submitting on time
• Chasing vigorously to secure payments due to you

Years working in demanding sectors mean we’ve developed a finely tuned eye for finding, valuing and applying for your entitlements.

With an important part of the professional quantity surveyor’s (PQS) brief being the reduction of the value of contractors’ accounts, you may find our support useful to fairly and assertively protect your interests. From experience, we know this is especially helpful when time is short and you face pressure from many project management and commercial challenges.

Your partner when the pressure is on

We’re a valuable partner when your in-house surveyors are stretched to capacity. And if you choose to outsource all your valuation work on a forthcoming project we’ll complement your team perfectly – from contract start to the intricacies of post-practical completion applications.

Above all, we’re here to ensure that you use valuation to get everything you’re entitled to during a project. We do this fairly, ethically and assertively, in line with the relevant contract management mechanism.

The result? Your interests are protected, cash keeps flowing and reputations are enhanced.

If you face contractual dispute on a project or want to minimise the likelihood of future disputes we can help.

With extensive practical construction experience we understand the damage disputes can do to working relationships. There’s short- and long-term value in keeping discussions moving and maintaining relationships for win-win outcomes and successful project completion.

The contracting parties we work for particularly like our demonstrable success-rate in resolving disagreements without recourse to more expensive forums.

Construction dispute resolution services to help you

Based on experience across residential and commercial building and construction, here are some dispute avoidance and resolution services that could help you:

• Fact finding
• Appraisal
• Letter writing
• Dispute or claim negotiation
• Consensus building for win-win outcomes
• Maintaining business relationships
• Managing extension of time claims
• Drafting settlement agreements.

More on dispute avoidance and resolution

Imagine having someone in your team who understands the complexities of construction contracts. An experienced, sitewise, professional surveyor who’s abreast of developments and understands how construction projects work. Someone skilled at resolving issues before they get to formal adjudication or beyond…

As a main contractor or subcontractor, you know how disputes, formal adjudication and litigation can slow projects or emerge post-contract. Regardless of when they arise, they cost time and money. Running projects is much easier if contract issues are sorted at an early stage – or resolved quickly and fairly if they escalate.

We like to keep projects moving forward smoothly, without delay or dispute, so everyone wins.

Prevention is better than cure

Having worked at the sharp end of building and construction surveying since the 1990s, we know that prevention is preferable to curing ‘live’ disputes. Use our skills and experience to avoid disputes and free you to focus on other project management issues.

As your partner, we’re an accomplished contractor’s surveyor bringing extensive site experience with developers and builders, procurement, negotiating and understanding of how the client PQS thinks.

A flair for keeping lines of communication open

Over the years, our clients have valued our ability to keep options and lines of communication open while pursuing successful dispute resolution. And for maintaining trust on both sides, while avoiding unnecessary escalation. Our clients also value the knowledge, confidence, pragmatism and assertiveness we bring to protecting their interests.

We’ll do the same for you – and we won’t cave in when the pressure’s on!

Whether we’re avoiding (or resolving) subcontractor disputes, or achieving fair outcomes with main contractors, we aim to keep projects moving smoothly, avoid or solve problems and preserve relationships. And of course, moving all parties toward successful project completion.

Wherever possible, we aim to achieve win-win results. From experience, even in the hard-nosed building and construction industry, this is achievable more often than many people imagine.

How we’ll help on your next contract

Let’s see how we can help break a deadlock, resolve a seemingly unsolvable dispute or (best of all) avoid disputes in the first place.

Sometimes, all it takes to broker a settlement that’s fair for everyone is our fresh perspective.