How to check a contractor's progress claim before you pay

Every month, on thousands of Nigerian building sites, a figure arrives by WhatsApp. It says a percentage, or a lump sum, or a list of items "completed". Money is sent. Nobody measures anything. When the building runs out of money at roofing level, both sides are surprised.

You do not need a quantity surveyor to apply the first test. You do need one for the rest, but knowing what to ask makes the conversation far more productive.

1. Was anything actually measured?

The single most common weakness in a claim is a percentage applied to a section. "Blockwork 70% complete" is not a measurement; it is an opinion with a number attached. Seventy per cent of what? Of the wall area in the drawings? Of the blocks delivered? Of the work the contractor remembers doing?

Ask for quantities. Blocks laid, stated in square metres of wall area. Concrete poured, in cubic metres, by element. Reinforcement fixed, in kilograms. If the claim cannot state quantities, it cannot be checked, and a claim that cannot be checked should not be paid in full.

2. Have materials been counted twice?

Materials on site are a legitimate part of a valuation, provided they are owned by the project and have not already been paid for. The trap is a running one: blocks delivered in August are valued in the August claim, and then valued again in September because they are still on site and still look like progress.

The control is a simple register. Every delivery, its date, its quantity and the certificate it was first valued in. Without that register, double counting is not dishonesty so much as inevitable.

3. Is work claimed that is no longer visible?

Excavation that has been backfilled. Formwork that has been struck. Services buried in a slab. None of it can be verified later from a photograph, and all of it is claimable. If your project has no record of what was done at those stages, you are paying against trust, and the record should start at the next stage even if the earlier one is lost.

4. Do the rates match what was agreed?

Where a BOQ exists, this test takes minutes: compare the rate in the claim with the rate in the bill. Where no BOQ exists, there is no agreed rate, and the argument becomes about what is fair rather than what was signed. This is the strongest practical argument for preparing a bill of quantities before work starts, even on a modest house.

5. What has been left off the deduction side?

Claims tend to grow on the additions side and shrink on the deductions side. Look for:

• Retention, if the contract provides for it.
• Advance payment recovery, where a mobilisation payment was made.
• Materials supplied by you: cement, reinforcement or tiles you bought directly, which should not be paid for twice.
• Dayworks claimed without a signed daily record.
• Previously certified amounts, which is where cumulative claims quietly double.

And the sixth test: is it built as specified?

Work can be correctly measured and correctly valued, and still be wrong. Reinforcement at the spacing the drawings require rather than the spacing that was convenient. Block strength as specified rather than as delivered. A valuation should record specification defects when they are found, because the remedy has a cost and it should be settled while there is still money in the contract to settle it with.

A useful habit, whatever your project size

Tie every payment to a measurement, and put the measurement in writing on the same day as the visit. Not a photograph album; a short document with quantities, a value, and a recommendation. It takes an hour to write and it is the difference between a project that stays under control and one that ends in an argument nobody can win.

If you are managing a site from abroad and the claims are arriving faster than you can check them, that is precisely what an independent valuation is for.