Written for the people who value the work

A final account is not an invoice with a bigger number. It is the contract sum, adjusted line by line for everything that changed, each line carrying its own paper. Built as you go it takes an afternoon; reconstructed at the end it takes a month and loses money.

Loss and expense is reimbursement of actual loss, proved. The recognised heads are narrower than most claims assume.

If the client is a business, statutory interest can apply even where your contract is silent. If the client is a private homeowner, the Act does not apply and your own contract is all you have. The split, and the trap in writing your own rate.

Assessment dates instead of valuation dates, Price for Work Done to Date instead of measured work, and a payment mechanism that differs by main Option. What a JCT surveyor needs to unlearn.

The process is procedural and unforgiving. Most failed calls fail on the notice, the timing or the form rather than on the entitlement.

Most change control fails because it is slower than the site. A procedure that takes ten minutes gets used; one that takes a week gets bypassed.

Snag lists never die of natural causes: they die when someone gives them a single owner, a fixed baseline, dates on both sides and a defined finish line. The four rules, and why the snag list at completion and the defects schedule a year later are different animals.

JCT sets a period for the contractor to submit documents and a period for the account to be agreed. Both are routinely ignored until the account is two years old.

The wording decides everything: the trigger, the cap, the expiry and who proves what. Very few bonds are read before they are filed.