I do not know whether my self-build is pre-build or live
A project can cross the commitment boundary before the main building work starts.
Updated: 13 September 2026. By Jack Butler-Kettle, Quantity Surveyor & Claims Consultant.
What's happening?
Land, design, planning, surveys and investigations alone remain pre-build, even when they have cost money. An accepted building, trade, package or material order, a kit or build deposit, substantive enabling work or substantive building work makes the project live. A paused or partially procured project remains live. Choosing the wrong route can hide commitments before the main build or treat a live cost position as an uncommitted proposal.
The solution
If a self-build budget is under pressure, separate missing scope, paid, owed, committed and unpriced costs, reserve and dated funding. Distinguish total affordability from a timing shortfall, then list the immediate evidence and decisions needed.
Select Pre-build or Live Build from the actual construction commitment boundary, not a project stage label, and preserve both service paths. The review identifies actions and owners; it does not promise resilience, funding or a programme outcome.
Example
The situation
A household building a £420,000 house has bought the plot, paid the architect and the structural engineer, been granted planning and paid a £15,000 deposit to a timber frame company. Nobody has dug anything, so the household thinks it is still pre-build.
What happens
- The deposit is an accepted order for the frame, so the project is live and the Live Build review is the right one.
- The money is separated into piles: £58,000 paid in fees, surveys and the deposit; £4,000 owed to the engineer; the £128,000 balance of the frame contract committed on its stage dates.
- The kitchen, the landscaping and the driveway are unpriced, around £38,000 on the architect's estimates; the electricity connection is missing altogether, never carried in the budget and quoted at £9,000; there is no reserve.
- The mortgage draws in stages, and the frame's second payment falls three weeks before the stage that follows the foundations.
- The forecast total comes to £441,000 against £455,000 of funds, so the house is affordable; the problem is a timing shortfall of £22,000 for three weeks, a different problem with a different fix.
- The frame company agrees to move the payment to the stage date, the connection goes into the budget, and a small reserve is set from the balance.
The budget in piles
| Pile | Amount |
|---|---|
| Paid: fees, surveys and the deposit | £58,000 |
| Owed to the engineer | £4,000 |
| Committed: balance of the frame contract | £128,000 |
| Unpriced: kitchen, landscaping and driveway | £38,000 |
| Missing: electricity connection | £9,000 |
| Forecast total | £441,000 |
The outcome
The house is affordable at £441,000 against £455,000 of funds; the £22,000 timing shortfall is closed by moving the frame payment, and each action has a name and a date beside it.