Can I claim for materials on site before they are fixed?

Most standard forms do allow materials and goods delivered to and stored on the site to be included in an interim payment before they are fixed, because otherwise a subcontractor would carry the cost of everything bought ahead of installation, which on a materials-heavy trade is a great deal of cash. But the entitlement lives inside conditions, and the conditions are the whole point. The materials generally have to be actually on the site, not merely ordered or in transit; intended for the works, properly stored and protected, and not brought on prematurely or unreasonably; and the claim has to be evidenced, tied to delivery tickets and to the works the material belongs to. Meet the conditions and the money arrives in the next application rather than at installation. Miss them and the line gets cut, sometimes with a suspicion that spreads to the honest lines around it. Two cautions. Once fixed, the material should move from the materials line into the measured work rather than being claimed twice, so reconcile installed against claimed each month. And the paying side often insists on seeing the material and its storage before certifying, so make it easy to inspect and keep the tickets filed against the claim. Claimed properly, on-site materials turn cash tied up in a compound into cash moving through the account.

Consider a mechanical subcontractor under a JCT form who takes delivery of a run of expensive plant, boilers and pumps, two months before the plant room is ready for them. Left off the application, that spend sits dead in the compound and squeezes the company's cash for a cycle. The subcontractor lists each item against its delivery ticket and purchase order, photographs it stored and protected in the compound, references the contract's on-site materials clause, and invites the surveyor to inspect. The materials are certified in the next valuation, and the cash comes back. Two months later, as each unit is installed, the materials line is reduced and the value reappears as measured work, so nothing is claimed twice. It worked because the claim met the clause's conditions and carried its evidence; an identical delivery claimed as a bare line, no ticket, no inspection offered, would have been cut without a second thought.