From a response to a back-charge to settling a subcontractor — every document is run so that a year later it is evidence, not a problem. If you are not sure what you need, send us the last letter you received. That is the fastest way to start.
Letters written with care — and backed by evidence that is hard to argue with.
Every letter in a contractual dispute works twice. Today it builds your position in clear, professional language in front of the other side. Months later a lawyer, an adjudicator or a court reads it, and then what counts is dates, clauses, notices and evidence. So we look after both layers: we find the arguments, assemble them into a coherent whole and set them in text that reads confidently — a letter you will be comfortable signing.
You instruct us in three sentences. You write briefly what it is about — as you would to your own back office. Reviewing the contract, selecting the grounds, building the chronology and drafting are our side of the job; you receive a document to approve.
We agree the tone with you. Sometimes it needs to be hard, sometimes diplomatic — always in a way that protects your position. We recommend the tone from years of practice and from how employers actually react, but the final decision is always yours.
How a letter that holds up is built
You send the documents as they are
The contract with its appendices, the letter you received, email correspondence, meeting minutes, site records, photographs, site diary entries. No sorting, no summarising — filing is our side of the job.
We build the contract timeline
Every event gets a date and a source: who notified what, when and to whom — and what went unanswered. The other side's silence can be an argument too. A timeline shows what single emails never do.
We test the facts against the contract
Scope and exclusions, the split of works between trades, notice procedures and their time bars, the basis for calculating penalties, handover and payment rules. We check what the contract requires of you — and what it requires of the other side, because that is the part everyone forgets.
You receive a letter ready to send
With the chronology, references to specific clauses and evidence, and reservations of rights where they are needed — in the tone we agreed, from diplomatic to hard. Plus a recommendation for the next move and a list of things better left unsaid: one careless sentence can concede someone else's claim. You just sign and send.
Three situations from practice
Cases combined and anonymised.
01An allegation of delay
The main contractor writes that the trade is six weeks behind programme and announces penalties. In the correspondence of recent months we find nine emails reporting a lack of access to the works and two sets of meeting minutes about a clash with another trade — most of them unanswered. In the contract: penalties are payable for culpable delay. The response sets the chronology of notices against the dates access was actually granted, demonstrates causes outside the subcontractor's control, requests an extension of time and reserves rights. The allegation stops being "obvious" before it can turn into a back-charge.
02A demand for work outside scope
The main contractor demands firestopping of service penetrations "because they are your services" and threatens to engage others at the subcontractor's cost. In an appendix to the contract — the table splitting work between trades — the disputed work is allocated to a different trade; and because the project runs on a design-and-build basis, working up the details belongs to the design package the employer is responsible for. The letter shows the demand has no basis, identifies the right addressee and puts on record that any charge would have no contractual foundation.
03A back-charge with set-off
A back-charge arrives for PLN 180,000 over a delayed milestone, to be set off against the next invoice. The review shows three things: the penalty was calculated on the whole contract sum, although the contract requires it to be calculated on the value of the milestone; the baseline date used had long been changed by a variation agreement; and readiness for handover had been notified in writing on time — the handover slipped for reasons on the employer's side. The response challenges the principle, the basis and the calculation, demands the set-off be withdrawn, and puts the evidence in order in case the dispute goes further.
What we write
We respond to
demands to accelerate the works
back-charges and liquidated damages
allegations of delay and defects
demands for work outside scope
threats to engage others or to terminate
comments from the site inspector and the Engineer
refusals to take over the works
We initiate
notices of obstruction and disruption
applications for extension of time
notification of variations and substitute works
reservations against the employer's instructions
demands for access to the works
notices of readiness for handover
demands for payment
back-charges against your own subcontractors
applications for direct payment from the developer
Turnaround: 3 working days as standard from receiving a complete set of documents; 24 hours where it is urgent. Every letter comes with the list of evidence it stands on.
Important
We are not a law firm — and that is an advantage, not a gap. We prepare letters, analysis and contractual-technical argument: we understand both the contract and the construction, so we see things in the documents that a lawyer without site experience would miss. You sign the letter. And where a matter needs a lawyer — litigation, termination — we work with your firm or recommend one we trust: they get an ordered chronology and a complete evidence file from us, so you pay them for law, not for archaeology in ring binders.
BDefence against penalties, and claims
Response to a back-charge
A back-charge is the other side's position, not a verdict. We check the contractual basis, the calculation, the time bars and culpability — and then respond so that the set-off does not go through unchallenged and your rights are reserved.
Claims for variations and substitute works
We gather the evidence of instruction and execution (instructions, emails, minutes, measurements, photographs), prepare the notifications, variation confirmations and pricing — and run the matter through to settlement.
Extension of time and prolongation costs
We document the causes: lack of access, clashes, employer's decisions, design changes. We submit applications within the periods the contract allows — because a late notice is very often a lost right.
Price adjustment
When material and labour prices run away from the tender, we prepare a documented application for price adjustment: contractual and statutory grounds, indices, the calculation, the argument.
Contract chronology (the evidence file)
We put the entire history of the contract into a single timeline with sources: what, when, by whom, evidenced how. It is the document that shifts the balance in any negotiation — and ready-made material for a law firm if it has to go further.
Recovering retention
After final handover, money has a habit of getting stuck for years. We check the grounds, the time limits and the conditions for release, prepare the demands and run the matter through to the transfer.
CContracts — before you sign, and when you sublet
Contract review before signing
The cheapest moment to defend against a penalty is before signature. We read the draft contract with its appendices and give you three things: a risk map (penalties, notice periods, procedures, payment, retention, handovers), a list of negotiation points with proposed wording, and a deadline map — what you have to notify, and within how many days, during the works so as not to lose rights. Turnaround: 3–5 working days.
Draft subcontract for your subcontractor
We take the contract you signed with the employer and build a draft subcontract from it: mirrored notice periods and handover dates, consistent penalties, procedures and requirements passed down. This closes the gap where the main contractor requires something of you that you do not require of your subcontractor — and it is exactly in that gap that money disappears. You get a document ready to negotiate, with a note explaining where each provision comes from.
Support in negotiations and variation agreements
We sit down with you to negotiate the wording, or prepare your position for a variation agreement — with the argument for why a given clause has to change and what it can be replaced with.
Contractual deadline calendar
We turn the contract into a live project calendar: notices, notifications, handovers, warranties, retention. We remind you before a deadline passes — not afterwards.
DYour subcontractors — the other side of the contract
Towards the employer you are the contractor. Towards your own subcontractors you are the employer. The same mechanisms that protect you up the chain should be working for you down it. Usually they are not, because nobody has time — until the first dispute.
Settling subcontractor progress
Progress valuations for your subcontractors: verification of progress against measurement and programme, consistency with what you invoice the employer, retention and deductions — calculated, evidenced and signed on time. No more invoicing by eye and arguing about it three months later.
Tracking subcontractor deadlines
We keep a calendar of their obligations: documents, notices, handovers, warranties. We write the reminders before a deadline passes, and the formal notices when it has. You only get a signal when the matter needs your decision — the paperwork is ours.
Letters to subcontractors
Demands to remedy and accelerate, reservations about quality, back-charges and deductions — prepared with the same evidential care with which we defend you against your own employer. You write in three sentences what you want; we turn it into a contractual document.
Instructions and variation agreements for subcontractors
Instructions for additional works, variation agreements on time and scope — in writing, with grounds and a trail. So that a year later nobody claims it was "agreed verbally" and you do not pay twice for the same thing.
EDay-to-day site records
Site records and certificates
Access to the works, variation confirmations, sectional and final handovers, progress certificates. Drawn up on time and in a form that a year later is evidence, not a problem.
Meeting minutes
Record the meeting on your phone or send us your own notes — we return minutes of what was agreed, with a list of actions, dates and owners, ready to circulate to the parties. Agreements with no written trail simply do not exist.
Correspondence register and document control
One register, always current: what came in, what went out, what it concerns, what deadline it carries and its status. No more hunting for a letter across three people's mailboxes.
Programmes and reporting
Preparation and weekly or fortnightly updates of the programme, progress reports for the employer — in whatever form the contract requires.
Interim valuations
Percentage progress statements for invoicing: calculated, evidenced, submitted on time. Because the most common reason for a late payment is not bad faith — it is a missing piece of paper.
Material submittals and product documents
We assemble product documents (Declarations of Performance, technical data sheets, certificates, approvals), complete the submittal form your contract requires and chase the approval process. Your engineers can do the simpler submittals themselves in our free generator — we take the difficult ones.
Risk register
A weekly review of the contract with one question: what could cost you money this month — and what has to be notified before it is too late.
FOngoing contract support — retainers
Retainers are charged per project, not per company — you pay for the support of one specific site for as long as it runs. Invoiced monthly in advance. Prices are "from": the final quote depends on the size of the contract and how heavy the correspondence is, and you will have it after a free opening call.
Retainer comparison — monthly prices, net, per project.
Scope
Office
Office+
Shield
Correspondence register and document control
✓yes
✓yes
✓yes
Contractual deadline calendar with reminders
✓yes
✓yes
✓yes
Material submittals, site records, meeting minutes
✓yes
✓yes
✓yes
Routine letters
up to 4 / mo
up to 4 / mo
unlimited
Programme, updates and progress reports for the employer
—no
✓yes
✓yes
Interim valuations (invoicing)
—no
✓yes
✓yes
Variations and substitute works — documented as they happen
Dispute strategy, case chronology, work with your law firm
The project ends — so does the retainer. No open-ended commitments and no notice period longer than a month. And if the first back-charge lands while you are on OFFICE, moving up to SHIELD takes one day — we already run the whole file, so nobody knows your case better.
Draft subcontract — a back-to-back draft built from your own contract, with negotiation notes.
A single letter or response — with a full review of the documents (section A).
Rescue package — taking over and putting in order a neglected contract file: register, chronology, risk list and outstanding notices.
Full claim — extension of time, variations, costs: analysis, evidence, calculation, letters.
Retention recovery — from reviewing the grounds to the money arriving.
GPlatform and material submittals
Last but not least — the tool we give away. A generator for material submittals: you upload the submittal form from your contract, the system recognises the product, tells you which documents that category requires, and assembles a complete PDF pack with numbering and an index of annexes. Company registration by Polish tax ID (NIP), no card details.
Why free? Because it is our calling card, not our offer. We would rather you first saw how we handle documents — and only then trusted us with what we are actually known for: letters, contracts and valuations.
Within one working day we will tell you what to do with it, which deadlines are already running against you and what the help would cost. The initial review is free and commits you to nothing.