How to document a site event that may end up as a claim
Last reviewed: Regulations change: the text is checked against the official source at each review.
A construction claim is the formal request for recognition of extra time, extra cost or both, arising from an event not attributable to the party bringing it. It is won or lost on contemporaneous documentation: a record made at the moment the event happened, not reconstructed afterwards. Almost every claim that fails does so for want of evidence, not for want of merit.
This is the most uncomfortable part of the job. Documenting an event while it is happening feels like an act of distrust towards the client, so it gets put off. Months later, when the relationship tightens, it can no longer be built.
Which events you have to document
Not everything. These, always, without exception.
| Event | Why |
|---|---|
| Work face not released on the planned date | The most common cause of delay attributable to the client |
| Verbal instruction changing scope, method or sequence | With no record, the instruction never happened |
| Technical information outstanding or contradictory | Drawings that never arrive, details that do not resolve between trades |
| Client-supplied material arriving late or defective | It hits the programme and it is not your responsibility |
| Suspension of works, for any cause | The basis of any extension of time |
| Conditions differing from those anticipated on site | Ground, buried services, undocumented structures |
| Interference from others engaged by the client | Another firm occupying your work face |
| Weather that stops work | Only counts if recorded the same day |
| Regulatory change or new requirement from an authority | It affects scope and cost |
| Rework caused by others | What has to be redone and why |
A useful rule of thumb: if the event cost you time or money and it was not your fault, document it the same day. Do not decide in the moment whether you will claim. Document first; the decision to claim comes later, with the evidence already in hand.
The seven elements of the record
A record that will support a claim has these seven elements. Missing one weakens it.
Date and time of the event. Not of when you wrote it up. And if the two differ, say so explicitly.
Objective description. What happened, with no adjectives and no attribution of blame. “The level 3 grid C work face was not released by the services contractor” is a fact. “They left us standing around again” is a complaint, and a complaint costs the rest of the document its credibility.
Precise location. Level, grid, section. Verifiable on site.
Measured effect. How many hours were lost, how many people stood idle, which activity stopped, which activities depended on it. The effect is what turns a fact into a quantified claim. With no figure, you have a grievance but no amount.
Photographic evidence. Dated photos with a visible location reference. If the event is an absence — a face not released, material that never arrived — the dated photo of the empty face is the evidence.
Who gave the instruction, or who was present. Name and role. Verbal instructions with no identified author cannot be passed to anyone.
Formal communication. The internal record is necessary and not sufficient. A claim stands when the event was communicated to the other party at the time, through the channel the contract sets out, with acknowledgement.
That last point is where most internally well-documented claims collapse. A perfect record that never left your folder proves you knew, not that you gave notice.
The deadlines, which is what gets lost most
Most construction contracts set a deadline for notifying an event that may give rise to a claim. It usually runs in days from when the event occurred or from when it was reasonably discoverable, and it is usually short: between seven and thirty days depending on the contract.
Once the deadline passes, the right is lost even if the fact is true and documented.
It is the most frequent and most avoidable cause of lost claims. Two things worth doing at the start of every project:
- Find the notice clause in the contract and write the exact deadline somewhere visible.
- Set the rule of always notifying within the deadline, even when the effect cannot be quantified yet.
For the second there is the protective notice: you communicate the event and reserve the right to quantify the effect later. It is short, commits to no figures and preserves the right. It should be routine, not exceptional.
Chain of custody
Documenting is not enough if you cannot later show the record is authentic and was not altered. Four attributes make the difference:
Verifiable date. That the date of the record can be checked by some means independent of your own assertion.
Tamper evidence. That the record cannot be changed without leaving a trace. An editable file in a shared folder fails this: anyone can argue it was changed afterwards.
Attributable authorship. That it is known who entered it, through a mechanism that person cannot reasonably repudiate.
Continuity. That the record forms part of a continuous series rather than being a loose document. An isolated record about a single event invites the suspicion that it was manufactured for the occasion. An unbroken daily series in which that event is simply one more entry is far more credible.
That last point is the strongest argument for keeping a daily record even when nothing happens. The value is not in each individual entry: it is in being able to show the habit exists.
Common mistakes
Documenting only once the relationship has broken. The most common one. While the client relationship is good, documenting feels hostile. When it breaks, the record starts, and the contrast of dates is visible to anyone reviewing the file.
Writing with emotional charge. A record full of reproach reads as a partisan account. A neutral description is more credible and, counter-intuitively, more effective.
Recording the fact without the effect. “The face was not released” is half of it. The other half is how many man-hours stood idle and which activities moved.
Not keeping the earlier versions of the programme. To show the effect on time you need to be able to show the programme before and after. Keeping the dated versions of the programme matters as much as the record of the event.
Frequently asked questions
- Doesn't documenting all this damage the relationship with the client?
- It depends how you do it. A routine, neutral, systematic record kept from day one normalises fast and nobody reads it as aggression. The damage comes from starting to document all at once when the conflict appears, because that really is a signal.
- Does a phone photo count as evidence?
- Yes, with caveats. Its strength depends on the date being verifiable and the image not having been altered. Photos sent through messaging apps usually lose their original metadata, which weakens them as technical evidence, though they keep value as part of a dated communication.
- How much weight does an email carry?
- Quite a lot, because it proves dated communication to an identified third party. It is one of the most practical means for formal notice, unless the contract requires a specific channel. Check the notices clause before assuming it.
- Do I have to quantify the effect straight away?
- Not always possible and not always necessary. Give notice within the deadline even without the figure, reserving the right to quantify. What cannot be recovered is the notice period.
- Can I still claim if I agreed to work under those conditions?
- It depends on the contract and the jurisdiction, but broadly carrying on working does not waive the right, provided the situation and the reservation were placed on the record at the time. That is precisely why a contemporaneous record matters so much.
Chilean, designing for Latin America. Field research surfaces what actually matters to clients, and that becomes products non-technical people adopt on their own — legal, education, accounting — and that show up in productivity from week one.
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