When speaking to clients or submitting proposals for consultancy work, we are often told that that the project is losing money. Therefore, the client can’t afford to employ external construction experts to assist them.

But in these cases, perhaps some clients do not have their eye on the bigger picture. A project in which we were recently involved illustrates this nicely.

One of our clients was working on a large project in the Middle East. They asked us to prepare extension of time claims related to COVID.

This client is a very good contractor. However, their project controls systems leave quite a lot to be desired. They recognised that preparing such a claim was beyond the skill set of their project team and appointed HDP.

A lot more time and effort went into proving the delay than usual. The main cause of this was the client’s inaccurate progress updates. Nevertheless, the time and effort were worthwhile. Ultimately, the claims were successful, resulting in relief for our client from circa US$5M of delay penalties.

Everyone was delighted with the result. The client understood that they would have been very unlikely to achieve such a result on their own. But how much had it cost them?

Our client’s investment in our expertise amounted to significantly less than one percent of the damages had the claims not been successful.

When you put it like this, construction experts seem fairly cheap don’t they?

When there are significant amounts of money involved, either from delay penalties or claimable costs, you look at the cost of external expertise differently. It should seem obvious from the above example: the decision to employ experts was the right one. But, you should base that decision on the potential return of money, rather than the upfront cost of external expertise.

When you look at it this way, you’ll be able to make much better decisions, leading to a better chance of profitable projects.

Hewitt Decipher Partnership’s expert consultants have been preparing and responding to claims for many years. We know how to comply with good practice to ensure that you have a justifiable claim. Where you do have entitlement, we will ensure that your claims are accepted in a timely manner.

Can we help you? To find out how, get in touch.

Andy Hewitt
FICCP, FCIOB, FCInstCES, FQSi
Managing Director
Hewitt Decipher Partnership
Dedicated Solutions from Trusted Professionals
Email: andy.hewitt@hewittdecipher.com