Valuations

Generally, the valuation will be based on the contract bills and will include the appropriate proportion of the items completed at that date. However, it is prudent to bear the following in mind.

• Bill items often include rates for composite items.
• The valuation is an approximate value of the work completed and is not a final account - it is not necessary to undertake detailed measurement of the work for each valuation.
• The architect must advise the quantity surveyor of any defective work to be deducted from valuations or the interim certificate. This should be made in writing and detailed as a separate item on the valuation or interim certificate.
• Addendum items should be noted within the quantity surveyor's copy of the contract and taken into account.

'Preliminaries' is the name given to works of a temporary nature, such as scaffolding, the contractor's site management, welfare facilities, insurances, and so on. Preliminaries may be time-related or fixed (and may be detailed as such in the contract bill) and are used when preparing the valuation. It is important to value preliminaries only in relation to completed work, bearing in mind the extent of the works still to be completed.

It is particularly difficult to value preliminaries that are not necessarily time-related, or where the cost is related not to the value of the work completed, but dictated by the timing of the expenditure by the contractor. Items such as insurance may be incurred at the commencement of the works by the contractor, but the employer may be reluctant to pay the full cost, as he or she will not necessarily receive any benefit for the early termination of the contract - for instance, if the contractor was to go into receivership, the employer might incur insurance costs twice, once with the original contractor, and then with a replacement contractor.

If a project is behind programme, then preliminaries costs should be adjusted accordingly. If a project overruns, and even if an extension of time has been granted, the contractor is not automatically entitled to additional preliminaries costs (see 2.26.14 of the JCT DB 2016 contract, force majeure, or 2.26.8, exceptionally adverse weather conditions - to name but two relevant events).

If a schedule of fixed and/or time-related preliminaries has been agreed at the outset between the private quantity surveyor (PQS) and the contractor's quantity surveyor, then if the contractor falls behind the contract programme, the preliminaries should be reviewed. In this instance, it is simply a matter of reapportioning the time-related preliminaries as necessary.

No additional preliminaries costs should be paid unless prior agreement has been reached with the architect or the employer.

Examples of fixed and time-related preliminaries are detailed below.

Certain preliminaries can also be considered as:

• initial cost (for example, erecting hoarding);
• ongoing cost (for example, maintaining hoarding); and
• final cost (for example, clearing away on completion).