Assessing variations, certifying progress payments, and adjusting provisional sums.
The builder has rung about money. It might be a variation, it might be a provisional sum that has landed at twice its allowance, it might be a progress claim for a stage you are not certain is finished. Those are three different things with three different sets of rules, and they get discussed as though they are one.
Start with the protection most owners do not know they have. For domestic building work in Queensland, a variation has to be in writing before the varied work starts, setting out what is changing and what it does to the price. An instruction given in the driveway and invoiced six weeks later does not meet that. You are entitled to say so — politely, in writing, the same day.
Provisional sums are the other leak. They are allowances, not prices, and they adjust against what the work actually costs. A contract sum with a long tail of provisional sums attached is not really a fixed price, and it should not be read as one.
A builder cannot fairly assess their own claim. That is not a criticism of builders — nobody can.
The architect assesses the builder's progress claims and issues progress certificates, determines variations, adjusts prime cost and provisional sums, and assesses claims for extensions of time. This is independent financial adjudication between two parties with opposed interests.
The feeling of the budget running away, and needing someone to stand between you and it. Variation anxiety is the dominant emotion of most builds — every phone call from the builder is assumed to be about money.
The builder self-certifies. The client pays what's claimed because they have no way to assess it. Variations arrive as faits accomplis, priced without competition and approved under time pressure, and the final cost bears little relation to the contract sum.
I assess the builder's progress claims and certify them, determine variations, adjust prime cost and provisional sums, and assess claims for extensions of time. This is independent adjudication between two parties whose interests genuinely differ, and it is the answer to 'can't the builder just handle it'. The builder cannot adjudicate their own claim. Nobody can. It is the difference between paying what is claimed and paying what is owed.
For domestic building work, the variation must be in writing before the varied work begins, describe the change, state what it does to the contract price and to the time, and be given to you. Sign nothing on a phone screen while a trade waits. Ask for the document, read what has actually changed, and check whether it is genuinely new work or something the contract already covered. If a variation has been done without the paperwork, put your position in writing straight away rather than after the next progress claim, and contact the QBCC if it is not resolved.
It depends what the claim actually is, so ask which clause of the contract it is made under. A variation follows the variation rules above. A provisional sum adjustment must be substantiated with the real cost of the work, plus whatever margin the contract allows on the difference. A delay or extension of time claim has to fit the grounds set out in the contract. And a rise-and-fall claim only exists if your contract has a rise-and-fall clause — most domestic fixed-price contracts do not. Ask for it in writing, with the clause and the arithmetic, before you discuss it.
On a new house the traditional stages are deposit, base, frame, enclosed, fixing and practical completion. Renovations vary far more, and many use monthly claims against work actually completed, because the classic stages do not map onto an existing building. Whatever the pattern, the principle is the same and it is worth holding: a payment should reflect work that is genuinely complete, not work that is planned. Queensland also limits the deposit a builder can take. If a claim arrives ahead of the work, that is the moment to raise it, not three claims later.
A provisional sum is an allowance for work nobody could price exactly at signing — stump replacement, rewiring, drainage. When the real cost lands higher, the difference is generally yours to pay, often with the builder's margin applied to it. You are entitled to see it substantiated with actual invoices rather than a round number. Two things reduce the damage. Get the genuinely risky items properly investigated and priced before signing, so there are fewer provisional sums. And close out the remaining ones early, while there is still time to change the approach.
Walk the site against the stage description in the contract and ask whether the work described is actually done, not nearly done. Check the claim against the contract sum plus approved variations, and keep a running tally so you always know where you sit against the original number. Do not pay ahead of the work, and do not let the final payment go early — that money is the only real leverage you have at the end. If you think a claim is wrong, get advice before withholding payment, because withholding can itself be a breach.
If you would rather start small, the First Sketch Session is two hours at your place. You keep the sketches, and there is no obligation afterwards.