An invoice arrived for a stage and you are not sure it is finished
Do not judge the invoice by how busy the site looks. Judge it by the contract clause that triggers the payment: find what that clause requires, list each requirement separately, and check each one against the building. Before you pay, the contract works for you.
This is the moment your contract is worth something
Before a payment is made, a stage that has demonstrably not been reached does not trigger the instalment, and the developer has an incentive to resolve the question quickly because they want the money.
After the payment is made, the same facts produce a complaint. Nothing about the building has changed; what has changed is that you no longer hold anything the developer wants.
Which is why this matters most between roughly 30% and 60% paid. Earlier there is not enough built to measure. Later, most of the leverage is already spent.
What the report contains at this point
The report is the same product at every one of these moments, and it costs the same. What changes is what it is filled with, and this is what it leads with here.
- The clause that triggers this payment, quoted, with each requirement listed separately
- What is physically in place against each of those requirements, photographed and dated
- The share of the price paid against the share of the building that exists
- Every earlier stage, so you can see whether this is a one-off or a pattern
- A letter to the developer citing the clause and asking them to confirm completion in writing
Before the payment deadline
Useful whether or not you order anything from us. If the developer answers all of it in writing, you have what you needed and we are not required.
- 01Find the clause the invoice refers to. If the invoice does not name one, ask for it in writing. That request alone changes the conversation.
- 02Write down each thing the clause requires as its own line. "Structure complete including roof slab and external blockwork" is three requirements, and a building can satisfy two of them convincingly.
- 03Ask the developer for dated photographs of each requirement. Note what comes back and what does not.
- 04Order a visit if the answer is thin. The report lands within five working days of it.
- 05Keep paying whatever is genuinely due. Withholding an instalment that was properly triggered puts you in default and hands them the stronger position.
Questions on this
Can I refuse to pay?
That depends on your contract and it is a question for a lawyer, not for us. What we can say is that the conversation goes differently when you can point to a clause and a dated record than when you can only say the photographs looked thin.
The developer sent a certificate signed by their own engineer.
It is evidence, and it is evidence produced by the party being paid. Whether that is enough depends on how much money is attached to the stage and on whether the certificate addresses each requirement of the clause or simply asserts that the stage is complete.
Does checking an invoice cost extra?
No. It is part of the report, not an add-on. Charging separately for it would mean admitting the ordinary report does not do the main thing, and it would be a surcharge asked at the worst possible moment, when you have an invoice in your hand.