Loss and Expense Claims: The Records That Win Them

Loss and expense is where good claims go to die of anaemia. The entitlement is real, the disruption was genuine, and the submission fails because the money cannot be tied to the events. Adjudicators and quantum experts say the same thing in different words: show me the records. This guide covers the heads of claim that make up a typical JCT loss and expense application and, more importantly, the evidence each one needs.

The framework

Under the JCT 2016 forms the contractor is entitled to loss and expense where regular progress has been or is likely to be materially affected by a Relevant Matter: variations, instructions, deferred possession, and impediment or default by the Employer among them. The 2016 editions tightened the procedure, requiring an initial assessment with the application and monthly updates. Treat those requirements as real deadlines. An application that ignores the machinery starts the argument a goal down.

The heads of claim and their evidence

Prolongation is the cost of running the site for longer: staff, accommodation, plant, supervision. The evidence is the site establishment records for the actual overrun period, costed at actual cost, not tender allowances. Claim the cost of the delay period when the delay occurred, not the weeks tacked on at the end.

Disruption is loss of productivity while working, and it is the hardest head to prove. The gold standard is a measured mile: compare output in an undisrupted period against the disrupted one, using your own allocation sheets and records. Tender norms and assertion get you very little.

Thickened preliminaries, additional supervision and extended attendances need timesheets and organograms showing who was added and why. Head office overheads and finance need accounts, not just a formula. Every head shares one rule: the cost must be actual, and the cause must be the Relevant Matter, not the market, the weather you priced for or your own supply chain.

Build the claim while the job is live

The cheapest loss and expense claim is assembled in real time. That means allocation sheets that say what gangs actually did each day, diaries that record instructions and obstructions as they happen, photographs with dates, and cost codes that separate the disrupted work from the rest. Six months after completion, none of that can be recreated honestly, and tribunals can tell the difference between records and reconstruction.

It also means resisting the global claim. Rolling every problem into one number invites the response that some of those problems were yours, and once that lands the whole claim wobbles. Cause by cause, head by head, record by record is slower to write and far harder to refuse.

If the numbers are significant, get help before the submission goes in rather than after it is rejected. Our claims preparation team builds loss and expense claims for contractors and subcontractors, and our outsourced QS service keeps the records straight from the start, which is the version of this story that costs the least.

Common questions

What is the difference between a Relevant Event and a Relevant Matter?

Relevant Events govern time and Relevant Matters govern money. An extension of time flows from a Relevant Event; loss and expense flows from a Relevant Matter affecting regular progress. The lists overlap but are not identical, which is one reason time and money claims need separate treatment.

Can I claim head office overheads?

Yes, where you can show the prolongation tied up resources that would otherwise have earned contribution elsewhere. Formula approaches such as Hudson or Emden are regularly used but are a fallback, not a right; an adjudicator will always prefer evidence of actual cost and actual lost opportunity.

Why do global claims fail?

Because they invite the tribunal to accept that everything bad on the project was someone else's fault, without linking individual causes to individual losses. If any significant cause was the contractor's own risk, the whole claim is undermined. Break the claim into cause and effect wherever the records allow, and keep the global element, if any, small and justified.