Route by external status

Use pre-claim while the position is internal or being assembled and has not been substantively advanced. Use live claim once a claim or response has been advanced or received, including informal or provisional exchanges. A protective notice alone is not automatically a substantive claim, but an urgent date always needs triage.

Updated: 16 September 2026. By Jack Butler-Kettle, Quantity Surveyor & Claims Consultant.

Why it matters

The wrong stress test wastes the time it takes and, worse, gives the wrong kind of answer. A position still internal can be reshaped freely: heads dropped, records repaired, figures rebuilt, before anyone outside has seen them. Once a claim or response has crossed to the other party, even informally or as a provisional figure, the questions change to what has been committed to, what can still be corrected without contradiction, and what deadline is running. Routing by who is advising, or by how confident the team feels, gets this wrong. The only useful question is what has crossed to the other side.

How to do it

Write down everything about the position that has been sent to or received from the other party, with dates.
If nothing substantive has crossed, treat the position as pre-claim and stress test it for reshaping.
If a claim, response or provisional figure has crossed, treat it as live and stress test it for what is now committed.
Treat a protective notice alone as not substantive, but check the dates it protects and whether one is close.
Where any date is urgent, triage that first and route the review afterwards.

Example

The situation

A contractor has sent the employer a one line notice reserving its position on loss and expense, followed by an email saying the claim is likely to be around £250,000. The commercial manager asks whether the position is still internal.

What happens

The manager lists what has crossed: a protective notice and an email with a provisional figure.
The notice alone would leave the position internal, but the email has put a figure in front of the other side.
The position is routed as live, and the stress test starts from the £250,000 already stated and what the records can carry of it.
The notice's dates are checked and one response deadline four weeks away is diarised.

The outcome

The review shows the records support £190,000, and the contractor corrects its figure in the formal submission with an explanation, rather than serving £250,000 and being taken apart on the difference.

Choosing the right stress test

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