Letter of Claim

The first thing you need to do in any construction dispute is send a Letter of Claim to the other side. However, it is important that you do so in accordance with your contract.  The contract may have specific terms about raising issues during the course of a project or development which would override the protocol.

In absence of anything to the contract to the contrary, the letter must contain the following information:

1. Your name (or that of your business) and address;
2. The full name and address of the building firm/company you are claiming from;
3. A summary of the claim or complaint that you are bringing;
4. Details of what you are claiming for; and
5. When you wish to have a response by - this is usually 14 days to acknowledge receipt and 28 days for a substantive response.

Once the initial letter of claim has been sent you may be obliged to wait for the requisite period before going to court. However, this will depend on the circumstances and a shorter timescale that the usual 14/28 days may be appropriate, for example when the builder is still on sight and part of your argument is that they should stop work and leave immediately.

Should you receive a response then you need to consider how to deal with this and should go to our Acknowledgment/Response section for further guidance on this.

Click here to go to the next step in the guide.