Avoiding double recovery

Where it happens

• Labour hours priced inside a variation, then claimed again as measured-mile loss.
• Site staff recovered through a preliminaries day rate and again through the actual ledger.
• Acceleration cost claimed alongside the prolongation it was incurred to avoid.
• Escalation recovered through updated rates and again as a separate head.
• Subcontractor claims passed through in full while the same scope sits in the main contractor’s own disruption model.

The control

One matrix, built early, with every head of claim as a row and every cost source as a column. Each cell is either empty or carries a note saying which head owns that cost and why. It is unglamorous and it survives cross-examination, which is more than can be said for the alternative.

The quantum proof ledger

Every claimed item gets a row recording the event identifier, the contractual or legal entitlement, the affected period or activity, the causal evidence, the cost account, the invoice or payroll source, the baseline or comparator, any adjustment, mitigation, other causes considered, the amount, a confidence assessment and the reviewer.

Acceleration in particular

Acceleration that successfully restored the completion date needs to be distinguished from disruption and from ordinary mitigation. If the delay was avoided, the prolongation was avoided with it, and claiming both is the clearest form of the problem.