Fluctuations & Price Escalation Claims
RemedialHourlyFor Subcontractors & Main Contractors
I operate your contract's fluctuations machinery exactly as written, computing the adjustment period by period from records, whether that is building your claim or checking one you have received.
The problem
Fluctuations clauses are bought for volatile markets and then operated badly or not at all. The machinery is exact: a base date, a basket of what qualifies, a prescribed method, published indices, notice conditions with teeth. Claims built without it arrive as a percentage on the account, easy to refuse; claims checked without it get paid as presented. Either way, the arithmetic nobody performed is where the money moves, and by final account the periods, indices and notices are history someone has to reconstruct.
The solution
I run the machinery as drafted: the base date confirmed, the qualifying basket established, the prescribed method applied with the published indices, period by period from the records, and the notice conditions checked against what was actually given. The same computation builds a claim or tests one received, and either way the result shows its workings. Where the fluctuations provisions were deleted, recovery outside the machinery is a different kind of claim and one for your solicitor; and where movement lands in a delayed period, the period is adopted and attributed from your position, never assessed by me.
What you receive
The adjustment stops being a percentage argued on the account. Every period is computed under the contract's own machinery from the records and the published indices, the notice position is stated, and the reconciliation against the account is shown, whether that proves your claim or reprices the one you received. It lands as a worked schedule with a written report behind it.
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
Everything in the list below in one go.
- A
Contract and particulars
EssentialWithout it: Nothing can be computed
Where to find it: The commercial folder or the order email.
Why I need it: Whether machinery applies, and which
- B
Base date and tender pricing
EssentialWithout it: The claim is gross, and wrong
Where to find it: Your priced tender return or cost plan, in your QS's working files or wherever tender documents are kept.
Why I need it: The zero point every movement is measured from
- C
Dated invoices
ImportantWithout it: Computation is theoretical
Where to find it: Your accounts system and the purchase ledger.
Why I need it: The record method's feedstock, and the reality check for the index method
- D
Access to the published index series the contract names, across the contract period
EssentialWithout it: Nothing can be computed on an index method
Where to find it: The publisher of the series the contract names. The practice pulls and saves it where the series is free to read; where it is subscription-only, discontinued or superseded, it comes from your own subscription or whoever in your commercial team holds it.
Why I need it: On an index method the movement side is these values and nothing else
- E
Notices
ImportantWithout it: Entitlement untested
Where to find it: The formal correspondence file, and your planner if the periods are disputed.
Why I need it: Conditions precedent live or die here
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
I establish the machinery
The option, base date, basket, method and notice conditions, from the contract as signed.
Machinery mapped to clauses.
The option, base date, basket and method each carry a clause reference before any computation runs, so the claim operates your contract, not a generic one.
I compute period by period
The prescribed method with the published indices, applied to each period's records.
Indices proven to source.
Every index value is checked against its saved published source and every cap applied before any figure is stated.
I check the notices and reconcile
What the conditions let through, and how the adjustment sits against what is already claimed or paid.
You issue or answer with the computation
The claim goes forward, or the one you received is answered, with the workings open.
I hand over the fluctuations computation with its workings open
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.
Tips that raise your odds of success
Questions I get asked often
Where the argument is about what a change itself is worth rather than price movement, Variation Valuation Dispute is the service that values it.