🏗️ Construction Dispute Resolution

Resolving a construction dispute is rarely straightforward. The nature of the dispute, the contract terms, and the sequence of events all influence the path to resolution. Often, it’s the careful unravelling of intertwined issues that determines whether a strategy of damage limitation is best — or whether it’s time to go on the offensive.

In many cases, once the root cause is identified and explained, the matter can be resolved in hours. But where parties become entrenched, the remaining routes may be litigation ⚖️, arbitration 📜, or adjudication 🏛️.

🛠️ Recent Successes

Lee Kyson has successfully assisted both Contractors / Builders and Employers / Clients — presenting claims and defending against them.

Recent examples:

• Defence of a £65k claim against a contractor in Barking (Lee instigated the Adjudication process on behalf of the Contractor)

• Switched from defence to offence

• Successfully argued before an adjudicator that the termination of the contractor’s employment under a JCT MW2011 contract was not valid.

• Defence of a £400k claim against a Contractor.

• Lee was given the documentation 1 day before the submission to the Adjudicator was due 😰.

• Lee successfully argued the case and the Adjudicator found in favour of the Contractor 😀

Case studies will be published soon.

📞 Early Advice is Key

Contact us for a preliminary assessment — even if you believe you’re already in damage-limitation mode.

If you’re only reading this after things have gone wrong, it may be too late to prevent all losses, but you can still take steps to protect your position.

🚧 Choosing the Right Builder

If you’re about to start a project:

• Hire a bona fide builder, not someone using unskilled labourers for skilled work

• Avoid rogue contractors who take large sums upfront and either disappear or are removed for poor work

• We’ve seen homeowners left £30k–£50k out of pocket, sometimes with homes rendered uninhabitable 🏚️

📋 The Risk of DIY Project Management

Many problems arise because homeowners act as their own Project Manager or Contract Administrator.
These are professional roles that take years to master. Doing it yourself signals that you accept professional responsibility — making it harder to claim later that you were a layperson. It is a difficult defence to step into the shoes of a professional then claim to be a layperson!

Whether or not this applies to you, we can help find the best way forward — you’re still entitled to get what you’ve paid for.

💰 The Danger of Front-Loaded Payments

Some contractors front load payment schedules:

• Taking more money early than the value of completed work

• Reaching a “point of no return” where the remaining project value is less than their cost to finish

• Result: reduced workforce, delays, and eventual abandonment

By the time you terminate the contract, the damage may already be done.

🏅 FMB Membership Checks

Some builders display the FMB logo without being members. If you wish to check if your builder is a member of the FMB click here it will take you to the FMB website to check your builder.

• We can verify membership for you

• Last year, the FMB expelled 26 members — so even genuine membership isn’t a guarantee, but it’s a useful check

  Learn More → A couple of case studies where Lee has been of assistance.