What is a true value adjudication?

A true value adjudication is an adjudication, the fast statutory dispute process, that decides what the work was actually worth rather than what the notices happened to say: the adjudicator, the independent decision maker, prices the whole account, including variations, which are changes to the agreed scope of work, and any deductions, then directs a balancing payment whichever way the figures point. For a payer that lost the notice battle in a smash and grab it is the route to put things right, but on the case law in England and Wales the Notified Sum, the amount that legally must be paid, must be paid by the Final Date For Payment before a true value adjudication over that round can be started. Payees use them too, for example where a valid Pay Less Notice fixed a low figure, because a notice only decides the cash paid for the round, never the underlying entitlement. These disputes are won on contemporaneous records, the notes, measurements and photos kept line by line while the work was being done.

A contractor has just had to pay a subcontractor £110,000 in a smash and grab, but believes the work that month was worth only about £80,000. Having paid the £110,000 first, as the case law requires, it launches a true value adjudication. The adjudicator prices the measured work, adds agreed variations for extra drainage, strips out a double claimed item, and concludes the true value is £84,000, directing the subcontractor to repay £26,000. A subcontractor can run the mirror image where a low Pay Less Notice left it underpaid. Either way the winner is usually the party whose dated measurements, photos and site records let the adjudicator rebuild the account line by line, which is why keeping those records as you go matters.