When a construction contract is terminated, found void, or otherwise falls away before completion, the parties are often left asking a deceptively simple question: what is the work actually worth? In the UAE, where construction contracts are frequently terminated amid disputes over payment, performance or force majeure, quantum meruit claims — literally, "as much as is deserved" — have become an increasingly common feature of DIAC arbitrations and DIFC Court proceedings alike.
What Triggers a Quantum Meruit Claim in the UAE:
Quantum meruit claims typically arise in UAE construction disputes where:
• A contract is terminated for repudiatory breach before completion, and the parties dispute entitlement to payment for work already performed • A contract is found void or unenforceable (for example, for non-compliance with mandatory local licensing or registration requirements) • Works are carried out under a letter of intent or interim instruction pending finalisation of a formal contract that is never executed • A contract is frustrated by events outside either party's control, including regulatory intervention or force majeure
Under UAE Civil Code principles, restitutionary and unjust enrichment concepts (Articles 318–329) provide the substantive legal basis for such claims, operating alongside or in place of common law quantum meruit doctrine depending on the governing law and forum.
The Expert's Role: Translating Legal Entitlement into Value:
Once liability and entitlement are established (or are being argued in parallel), a quantum expert is engaged to value the work actually performed. This is a fundamentally different exercise from valuing a straightforward variation or delay claim, because there is no completed contractual mechanism to apply. Quantum experts in UAE quantum meruit disputes typically consider:
• Actual cost incurred, verified against site records, subcontractor accounts, procurement documentation and payment certificates • Reasonable market rates for labour, plant and materials at the relevant time, particularly important given the volatility of UAE construction input costs • Value added to the asset, in some formulations of quantum meruit, as opposed to cost incurred • Deductions for defective or incomplete work, requiring close coordination with construction and structural experts where workmanship is disputed
Common Evidentiary Challenges:
Quantum meruit valuations in the UAE construction sector are frequently complicated by:
• Incomplete or informal record-keeping, particularly on projects that progressed under letters of intent without a fully executed contract • Disputes over which measurement methodology applies in the absence of an agreed contractual valuation mechanism • Overlapping claims for both quantum meruit and damages, requiring experts to avoid double recovery • The need to reconstruct "as-built" quantities where site records are contested or incomplete
Why Early Expert Involvement Matters:
Because quantum meruit claims often arise from disputes with poor documentary foundations, early instruction of a quantum expert — ideally before termination crystallises or shortly afterward — significantly improves the quality of the evidentiary record available for valuation. Experts who are brought in only once pleadings are exchanged frequently face significant gaps in contemporaneous records that could otherwise have been secured.
Practical Guidance for Parties:
Contractors, developers and financiers facing a potential quantum meruit dispute in the UAE should:
• Preserve site records, valuation certificates, and correspondence from the point a dispute becomes apparent • Engage a quantum expert early to advise on record adequacy, not only to prepare the eventual report • Consider whether DIAC arbitration or DIFC Court litigation offer the most suitable forum, given the differing approaches to expert evidence and restitutionary claims across each • Coordinate quantum and technical (construction/structural) experts closely where defective work is likely to reduce the value of any quantum meruit entitlement
Quantum meruit disputes reward careful, well-evidenced valuation over aggressive advocacy. In the UAE's fast-moving construction market, the parties best positioned to succeed are those who treat expert evidence as a strategic priority from the earliest stages of a dispute, not an afterthought.