Counterclaim & Contra-Charge Build
RemedialHourlyFor Main Contractors & Clients
I build your counterclaim or contra-charge schedule properly, each item evidenced, anchored and priced from records, so the deduction you make is one that holds.
The problem
Cross-money fails in both directions. The paying side's schedule is usually assembled at speed from recollection: round numbers for defects, attendances never agreed in writing, damage nobody photographed at the time. It feels strong because the grievances are real, but a schedule of assertions collapses at the first line-by-line answer, and one bad item taints ten good ones. A deduction is a claim; it carries the same burden a claim does, and it gets tested the same way.
The solution
I build the schedule the way the other side's defence will read it: each item evidenced from the records, anchored to the provision that makes it chargeable, priced from cost documents rather than recollection, and assembled to ride a pay less notice or the final account. The weak items are cut, visibly, because a schedule that has shed its own weak items is the one that gets believed. Whether set-off is permitted under the particular contract is a question for your solicitor, and delay-based items are adopted and attributed from your position, never assessed by me.
What you receive
Your cross-money stops being a list of round numbers. Every item that goes forward is evidenced, anchored to its provision and priced from records, the weak items are shown as cut rather than quietly kept, and the schedule is structured to ride the pay less notice or the account it travels with. When the line-by-line answer comes, it holds.
The Handover Pack accompanies the work with its dates and sources, likely outcomes and responses, scope boundaries and ready-to-send correspondence where needed.
Turnaround: the timetable is agreed in writing at scoping and then kept.
The working days start when the agreed scope and required inputs are available. Optional items do not hold the start unless the agreed scope says otherwise.
How it works
You send me the paperwork
The list below is what the schedule is built and priced from.
- A
Contract
EssentialWithout it: Rows have no anchor
Where to find it: The commercial folder or the order email.
Why I need it: Basis and notice provisions per item
- B
Candidate list
EssentialWithout it: Items surface late and unbuilt
Where to find it: The project team's tracker, the snag lists and the commercial file.
Why I need it: The scope of the build
- C
Records per item
ImportantWithout it: The item is cut
Where to find it: The site files and the team's phones.
Why I need it: The difference between a claim and an assertion
- D
Account position
EssentialWithout it: No deliverable context
Where to find it: Your QS's working files, or the last agreed valuation or certificate showing where the account currently stands.
Why I need it: The schedule must land somewhere
Copies are fine. Send what you have and I'll tell you what's missing. Download the client request PDF or editable Word version to pass to whoever holds the files.
- A
You walk me through the items
One call through the list: what happened, what was done about it, and what it cost.
Window and Cut Agreed
The recovery route and its notice window are established from the payment terms, and the triage, including dropped items, is agreed with you in writing.
I test every item against the records
The provision that makes it chargeable, the notice it needed, and the evidence and cost behind it.
I cut the weak items, visibly
What cannot be evidenced or anchored comes out and is shown as considered and excluded, which is what makes the rest credible.
I price and assemble the schedule
Each surviving item evidenced, anchored and priced, structured to ride a pay less notice or the final account.
Schedule Traced Inside Window
Every priced line traces to a filed record, the exclusions are confirmed by you in writing, and the schedule is ready inside the notice window.
You deduct or claim on it
In your name, through the payment cycle or the account, on a schedule built to be tested.
I hand over a schedule built to survive its answer
Free Service Pack
A step-by-step Handbook, with the templates and working documents you need to carry out the work it covers yourself. You supply your own project information and records.
Follow the Handbook's scope and stopping points, and obtain independent advice where required. The pack is not project-specific advice or independent sign-off.
My products used
Tips that raise your odds of success
Questions I get asked often
This service is the mirror of Set-Off & Contra-Charge Defence: one builds the paying party's schedule, the other answers it from the receiving side. And where the deduction rides a wider account being closed, Final Account Assembly, Negotiation & Agreement on the quantity surveying side is where the whole account is settled.