Builder's Playbook · England · UK06
Valuing a JCT Variation
Educational, not legal or tax advice. Check your contract and the current law (England and Wales).
5 points
Log each Instruction the day it arrives
Record the reference, the date received and what it changes. Under JCT SBC 2024 a change to the design, quality or quantity of the work, or to the obligations or restrictions imposed, is a Variation (cl. 5.1).
Value from the bill's rates first
Unless a price is agreed first (for example a Variation Quotation, cl. 5.3), the client's QS values a Variation under the contract's Valuation Rules. Measurable work starts from the rates in the bill; read cl. 5.6 for when a rate is adjusted (cl. 5.2, 5.6). Show every quantity and rate so the client's QS can check it.
Check whether the bill's overheads and profit apply
If your bill prices overheads and profit as separate percentages, check how your contract and the Valuation Rules treat them before you leave them off a Variation. Consider preliminaries too, where the change affects time or how the site runs.
Notify any delay to progress straight away
If progress is, or is likely to be, delayed, notify it; Variations are Relevant Events. The architect then decides whether to fix a later Completion Date, within 8 weeks of receiving your particulars in the 2024 edition (12 weeks in 2016). Where regular progress is materially affected, loss and expense has its own notice rules (cl. 2.27–2.29, 4.20–4.22).
Agree each Variation before the final account
Value and agree each change as it happens, while the records are fresh. Keep a register: reference, date received, value submitted, value agreed, and review it with the client's QS every month.