In more than 20 years in construction, Ross Starkey has been the commercial lead on £3.2 billion of projects. He uses that experience in two ways: reviewing your contract so your project is set up for success before you commit, and building the strongest case for the right result when a dispute cannot be agreed.
Protect your profit from day one, with a written, risk-rated report from someone who has run these contracts from every side.
Your dispute assessed, prepared and taken to a decision, with the claim built on the contract and the records to put you in the strongest position to win.
Also available: payment and cost recovery and change control, for accounts that need sorting out before they become a dispute.
Know the payment terms, time bars, damages and set-off provisions before you agree to them. Most problems later in the job start with a contract nobody checked.
Every notice, application and deadline is a chance to secure payment or protect your position. Miss one and the contract may take the right away.
Time and money slip away when variations and delay are not notified, valued and evidenced as the contract requires. Record it properly and it can still be claimed.
A strong claim is one that gets paid. Claim everything the contract allows, priced and presented the way the other side's commercial team has to accept.
The right advice at the start of a contract, or at the first sign of a problem, costs far less than the dispute that follows without it.
It happens on most jobs. The contract arrives late, the start date is fixed, and the terms get signed unread. The problem shows up months later as a short payment, a rejected variation or a damages deduction.
It is rarely too late. A signed contract still gives you rights to payment, notices and adjudication. The first step is finding out exactly where you stand.
A fixed fee of a few hundred pounds, set against an account worth tens or hundreds of thousands.
Prevention is better than cure. Start your project off right with a detailed contract review.
Contract reviews and dispute resolution are the core of the work, with payment and cost recovery and change control alongside. For any construction contract on NEC, JCT, FIDIC or bespoke terms. Every service ends with a written deliverable you can act on.
Establish what is due under the contract and the Construction Act, then recover it: unpaid applications, withheld retention, under-valued work and costs you are entitled to but have not been paid.
Recover a paymentOne payment cycle (application, payment notice, pay less notice and dates) checked against the contract and the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 (as amended). A written view on what is due and what to do next, in 2 working days.
A formal demand for the sum due, citing the contractual and statutory basis, ready to send on your letterhead. 2 working days.
Get change and delay notified, valued and agreed while the job is still running: variations, compensation events, loss and expense, and extensions of time.
Get change agreedNotice review, entitlement narrative, delay and cost evidence schedule, and a claim submission under the contract.
Up to 8 hours a month: variation and notice registers kept current, applications and notices checked before they go out, contractual letters drafted, and advice by phone or email.
When payment or entitlement cannot be agreed, take it to a decision. Adjudication is available at any time on most UK construction contracts and normally produces a decision within 28 days of referral.
Resolve a disputeNotice of adjudication, referral with supporting bundle index, and reply to the response, for a payment-notice or straightforward valuation dispute.
Extension of time, prolongation and final account disputes, and responding to an adjudication brought against you. A written assessment of the merits first, then the claim or defence, the evidence and the submissions.
Before you sign, know what you are agreeing to and what to ask for instead. If you have already signed, know where you stand and which deadlines you cannot miss.
Get a contract reviewedA written report on one contract or subcontract, signed or unsigned: risk-rated clauses on payment, notices and time bars, damages, set-off, design liability and termination. Proposed amendments if you have not signed; the notices and deadlines to manage if you have. Includes a 30-minute call. Report in 2 working days.
The contract you have been asked to sign, the application and notices for one payment cycle, or the instructions and records behind a variation or claim.
Fees under £1,000 are paid on instruction, by bank transfer. The 2 working days run from receipt of the complete documents and payment.
A report that tells you what the risk or the entitlement is and what to do next, in plain terms you can act on.
Employers and developers, main contractors, specialist subcontractors, suppliers and consultants. The payment rules, notice requirements and adjudication rights are largely the same whichever side you are on.
Commercial lead on £3.2 billion of construction projects. A quantity surveyor by training (BSc Hons, Quantity Surveying and Commercial Management), with over 20 years in construction commercial management under NEC, JCT and FIDIC. He has led commercial teams of up to 18 for tier-one main contractors, on portfolios of up to £225m a year, and has worked client-side on defence and water infrastructure.
He has valued, certified, defended and pursued claims from every side of the contract, so he knows where disputes come from and how the other party's commercial team will respond. RoCo puts that experience to work at the two points where it counts most: before the contract is signed, and when a dispute has to be taken to a decision.
Recent work includes an adjudication referral for an extension of time and prolongation claim, the payment applications and more than 70 compensation events on a £3.4m NEC4 roofing and waterproofing subcontract on a major hospital project, and renegotiating the payment and delivery terms of a £2.8m international supply agreement for a UK joinery manufacturer.
Reviewing a contract, challenging a payment notice, writing a claim and running an adjudication are not jobs the law reserves to solicitors. A commercial specialist can do them for a fixed fee. Where you do need a solicitor, RoCo says so at the start.
Signed it already or about to? Upload the contract, the payment notices or the claim papers and say what you need. The price is fixed before any work starts.
Your documents are kept confidential and used only to advise you.
Prefer to talk first? 07810 000700
RoCo Consulting