Construction mediation is a voluntary process for settling a dispute without going to court or adjudication, and going into it with a clear, dated evidence bundle is what gives your position shape.
What mediation actually is
Mediation is a voluntary process where both sides sit down with an independent third party to try to reach a settlement. Nobody imposes a decision on you. The mediator helps the conversation along, but the outcome is whatever the two of you agree, or no outcome at all if you cannot agree. This post is general information and not legal advice, and any court material in it is for England and Wales.
For a contractor, mediation often comes up when a dispute with a client has stalled: there is disagreement about whether work was done properly, whether a defect is the contractor’s responsibility, or what should happen about payment. Mediation sits alongside, not instead of, your other routes. It does not replace adjudication where that right applies, and it does not replace court proceedings if things end up there.
Where adjudication fits, and where it does not
Under section 108 of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996, a party to a construction contract has the right to refer a dispute arising under that contract for adjudication. Notice can be given at any time, the timetable secures the adjudicator’s appointment and referral within 7 days of the notice, and the adjudicator must reach a decision within 28 days of referral, extendable by up to 14 days with the consent of the party who referred it, or longer if both parties agree after referral. The decision is binding until the dispute is finally determined by legal proceedings, by arbitration or by agreement.
What the client’s contract rights actually are
When a dispute involves a consumer client, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 sets the baseline that mediation discussions tend to circle around. Section 49 treats every contract to supply a service as including a term that the trader performs the service with reasonable care and skill. Section 55 gives the consumer the right to require the service to be performed again to complete it properly, within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience, with the trader bearing the necessary cost of labour or materials, unless completing performance in conformity with the contract is impossible.
Section 56 gives the right to a price reduction where repeat performance cannot be required, or has not happened within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience. Any refund due under that section must be paid without undue delay, and in any event within 14 days of the day the trader agrees the consumer is entitled to it, by the same means the consumer used to pay, with no fee for making it. None of this tells either side what a mediator, a court or an adjudicator will decide. It is simply the framework both sides are usually negotiating against.
The bundle you take into the room
Mediation moves faster when both sides can point to the same facts rather than arguing from memory. A bundle built around dated, specific evidence does more work than a long written account. For each disputed item you want:
- A photo of the actual defect or the actual completed work, not a general site shot
- A note of where it is, by room or by location on site
- A short, plain description of what the issue is or was, recorded at the time rather than reconstructed later
- The date the photo and note were made, so a timeline is not in dispute
- Any related correspondence, such as when the issue was raised and what was said back
This is where a tool like SayScope can help on the contractor side too: walking a site, photographing each item, circling it on the photo and recording a short note by voice gives you a dated, room by room and trade by trade record without extra admin. Whether the dispute is about a defect a client is raising against you, or snagging you are raising against someone upstream, having that record assembled before you sit down saves time arguing about what was actually there.
If mediation does not settle it
If mediation does not produce an agreement, the dispute does not disappear. Section 5 of the Limitation Act 1980 says an action founded on simple contract cannot be brought after six years from the date the cause of action accrued, so that is the outer boundary to keep in mind, not a target to wait for.
If the claim ends up in court and falls within the small claims track, which generally applies to claims not exceeding £10,000 under Civil Procedure Rules Part 27, the rules are different from a full trial. Rule 27.5 says no expert may give evidence, written or oral, at a hearing without the court’s permission. Standard directions require each party to file and serve copies of all documents they intend to rely on at least 14 days before the final hearing. The strict rules of evidence do not apply and the court need not take evidence on oath. None of this predicts what a court will decide, it only describes the process.