QScope

Written for the people who value the work

Payment, valuation, variations, retention and the final account. 174 pieces, no sign-up, and no piece that ends in a sales pitch.

Latest

Time & completion19/02/2026
What does practical completion actually mean on a small job?

There is no statutory definition, and the arguments are rarely about the words anyway. Practical completion is the switch that releases half the retention, stops delay damages and starts the defects clock, which is why one side wants it certified now.

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Variations18/02/2026
Do I use contract rates or a new price for extra work?

Contract rates bind both ways when the extra work resembles what was priced. When it does not, the rate gets adjusted or replaced, and the safest move is a price agreed before the work is done.

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Retention17/02/2026
The case for abolishing retention, and why it has not happened

Everybody downstream dislikes it and the arguments against are strong. It survives because every alternative shifts the risk rather than removing it.

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Construction Act16/02/2026
What do I write in a final demand so it actually works?

A letter before action is a named step with rules, not an angry email in capitals. What it must contain, which pre-action protocol applies to your debtor, and the thirty-day point on consumer debts.

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Security13/02/2026
Latent defects insurance and the ten-year problem

By the time a hidden defect appears, limitation may have run and the contractor may have dissolved. Cover has to be arranged before the work starts.

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Reports11/02/2026
A risk register that produces a contingency you can defend

A flat percentage contingency is a guess with a decimal point. How to build a register that produces a number, keep it current, and answer the question every client eventually asks.

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Construction Act10/02/2026
Four numbers you need from your own building contract

Every payment deadline on a job is counted from four periods, and they are in your contract rather than in the law. Which four, where to find them, and why a figure someone else assumed for you is worth nothing when it matters.

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Variations09/02/2026
The architect says it was included in the price. Was it?

The answer is not in anyone’s memory. It is in the documents your price was built on: the drawings, the spec and the bill your contract lists. How to check in ten minutes, and how to write the next quote so the argument cannot start.

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Security06/02/2026
Professional indemnity, and why it is claims-made

It responds to the claim made this year, not the advice given six years ago. That distinction decides what happens when a policy lapses.

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