Nachtragsmanagement: Why Construction Claims Grow — and How Claim Management Keeps Them Under Control
A contractor’s additional payment request can look alarming on paper, but good Nachtragsmanagement — construction claim management — is not about rejecting every claim. It is the structured process of understanding what changed, why it changed and what the project should reasonably pay for. The earlier that process starts, the easier it is to protect both the budget and the working relationship.
1. Understand Why the Claim Exists
A request may come from a genuine change in scope. It may also come from unclear tender information, a design revision, changed quantities, late decisions or work the contractor believes was never included. The first task is not to negotiate the price — it is to establish the cause.
• What requirement has changed?
• Who initiated or caused the change?
• Was the work already included in the original scope?
• Was a formal instruction issued?
• When was the issue first notified?
• Has the work already started?
• Which documents support the request?
A claim should never be assessed from the contractor’s quotation alone. The contract, specifications, drawings, instructions and site records need to be reviewed together.
2. Test Cost and Programme Together
An additional cost request rarely affects cost alone. A design change may delay procurement. Extra work may block another contractor. A late decision may require temporary measures or work to be carried out in a different order from the agreed programme. Some changes increase cost without changing the completion date at all.
Each proposed change should be reviewed across four connected areas: the basis for the request, the changed scope, the cost and the programme effect. The team should also test whether the impact can be reduced by resequencing work, using an alternative method or progressing unaffected activities. A commercially sound decision looks at the complete project effect, not just the value written on the quotation.
3. Keep One Controlled Variation Register
Claims become difficult to manage when information is scattered across emails, meeting minutes, site instructions and separate spreadsheets. A live variation register — one controlled record of proposed and approved changes — should show the claim description, notification date, cause, submitted value, assessed value, programme effect, missing evidence, approval status and final decision.
The register should distinguish between a potential change, a submitted claim, an assessed claim and an approved variation. Without that distinction, unverified requests can quietly turn into committedproject costs. Approval authority also needs to be clear: site teams may need to issue technical instructions quickly, but they should know whether those instructions also authorise additional expenditure.
4. Decide Before the Site Decides for You
Delayed variation decisions create their own risks. When work continues without a clear position, uncertainty grows around payment, programme and responsibility. The investor may lose the chance to compare alternatives or challenge the proposed method.
Not every claim can be resolved immediately. In those cases, agree the temporary scope, the records to be maintained, the method for evaluating cost, the treatment of programme effects and the deadline for a final decision. Good Nachtragsmanagement also protects the working relationship: contractors should be paid fairly for valid changes, while investors should not accept costs that belong to the original scope or rest on unsupported assumptions.
Claim management should begin before a disagreement becomes a dispute. That simple principle guides VisionArx’s work on Nachtragsmanagement and claim management: early records, clear responsibilities and timely decisions protect both delivery and the commercial relationship.