We have a position but no substantive claim has gone out
The records and an internal draft exist, but the position is incomplete and the next decision is still open.
Updated: 13 September 2026. By Jack Butler-Kettle, Quantity Surveyor & Claims Consultant.
What's happening?
A complete claim is not required for a useful first review. The position may be an account extract, draft schedule, notice and folder of records with important gaps. The immediate task is to test what those sources support before a substantive position is sent to the other party.
Separate supported heads from assumptions, missing evidence and conditional options. Record any urgent contractual or legal date for the appropriate adviser. A protective notice alone does not determine whether a substantive claim has been advanced or which legal consequences follow.
The solution
Review the incomplete internal position before deciding whether to advance it, separating supported amounts from assumptions, missing evidence and conditional options. List each proposed head, source, owner and next evidence action so the current team can make a proportionate decision.
The review identifies evidence, effort, collection uncertainty and counter-position issues that affect the decision. It can proceed without a complete claim, while the substantive receipt or advancement gate stays explicit and unresolved points remain visible.
Example
The situation
A contractor's commercial team has an internal draft claim of £420,000 in five heads, a protective notice already sent and nothing substantive across the table. The draft is reviewed before anyone decides to send it.
What happens
- Variations of £150,000 are measured and instructed and stand as supported.
- Prolongation of £140,000 is the tender preliminaries multiplied by the weeks in the draft programme; it is marked as an assumption, because the cost records are not pulled and the period is the programming expert's.
- Disruption of £80,000 is a percentage uplift with no baseline and is marked unsupported.
- Head office overhead of £30,000 comes from a formula with no accounts behind it, and £20,000 of financing has no calculation at all; both are marked as missing evidence.
- Each head is listed with its source, an owner and the next evidence action, and the contract's notification wording is noted for the solicitor with the date it turns on.
- The team decides on a proportionate course: four weeks on payroll, hire and allocation records before anything goes out.
The five heads, draft and as sent
| Head | Draft | As sent |
|---|---|---|
| Variations | £150,000 | £150,000 |
| Prolongation | £140,000 | £118,000 |
| Disruption | £80,000 | £37,000 |
| Head office overhead | £30,000 | Held back |
| Financing | £20,000 | Held back |
| Total | £420,000 | £305,000 |
The outcome
The claim that eventually goes across at £305,000 carries the £150,000 of variations, prolongation rebuilt from payroll and invoices at £118,000 and disruption from allocation sheets at £37,000, with overhead and financing held back until the accounts support them.