A specialist curtain-wall subcontractor was about to sign a JCT Design & Build subcontract for a 12-storey commercial tower in Central London. £8M contract value over a 24-month programme.
The tender documents had been issued with seven weeks to bid. The back-to-back terms were aggressive. The programme baseline assumed structure handover dates the structural contractor had already publicly missed on a separate package.
Ashton Blake was brought in at bid stage — three weeks before the contract was due to be signed.
Before the contract was signed, we performed a structured red-flag review of the tender pack. Fourteen clauses were flagged as either commercially toxic or unenforceable in their drafted form.
Four phases. Twenty-four months. Daily reporting, weekly progress meetings, monthly board dashboards. Records-first methodology applied throughout.
Structured red-flag review of tender pack. 14 risk clauses identified across commercial, programme, and contractual streams. Drafted a counter-proposal memorandum with proposed amendments and supporting rationale.
Programme baseline formally agreed and signed off by both parties. Contemporaneous record system deployed — daily site report template, photographic protocol, document-control flow, EWN tracker. Site team trained on capture discipline before boots hit site.
12 Early Warning Notices served within contract timescale — each tied to a Relevant Event with substantiating records. 8 EOTs granted, totalling 47 days of additional programme. 6 variations captured, valued at £380K — all priced from contemporaneous records and substantiated in advance of monthly application.
Final account submitted at £9.2M — supported by full record substantiation. Scott Schedule prepared in parallel as adjudication-ready fallback. Snagging programme reduced defect list by 60% before practical completion. Retention released on schedule, no withholdings.
Of the six captured variations, four required formal Scott Schedule preparation. Without contemporaneous records and prior substantiation, the main contractor's typical recovery rate is 30–35%. With Ashton Blake's records, this case settled at 95%.
The £420K of bid-stage risk reduction on this project was only possible because we arrived three weeks before the signature. Every week earlier we're brought in compounds the value protected.