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 & completion04/02/2026
The defects period: what do you have to do to get the rest of your money?

Between practical completion and the final retention release sits a period, usually six or twelve months, with one job: defects notified, defects made good, certificate issued, money released. Each step has an owner, and the money strands where a step has none.

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Retention03/02/2026
Chasing the second release

The end of the rectification period is silent. No invoice, no application, no meeting, and that is exactly why the money sits there.

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Variations02/02/2026
He told me to do it on site. Can I get paid for it?

A verbal instruction is real work with weak paper. The one-line confirmation email that fixes it, who has to have said it for it to count, and why this works the same on a domestic extension as on a commercial job.

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Security30/01/2026
Who insures the works, and until when

A fire two days after practical completion and a fire two days before are the same fire with entirely different consequences for who pays.

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Retention28/01/2026
Reconciling the retention account

Held should equal cumulative value at the applicable rates, less releases. When it does not, one of three specific things has gone wrong.

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UK27/01/2026
The payment timeline QScope calculates under the Construction Act

QScope counts the days from due date to final date for payment under section 116, excluding the statutory non-days, so notices and any adjudication rest on enforceable dates.

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Final account27/01/2026
Agreeing the final account without turning it into a dispute

How to get from a submitted account to an agreed one. Sequencing the items, dealing with the three that are genuinely contentious, and why one meeting rarely does it.

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UK23/01/2026
Practical completion in QScope under JCT and NEC4

QScope records practical completion as the milestone that releases retention, starts the rectification period and begins the run to the final account.

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Time & completion22/01/2026
When two delays run at the same time

Concurrency is where an employer risk event and a contractor risk event both delay completion over the same period. The usual answer is time, without money.

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