No Sub-Letting

Mezux Touch does not sub-let survey, drilling, splicing or liaison work. The reason is accountability rather than principle: when a critical activity is passed to another party, the client's contract is with us but the work is not, and every quality question then routes through a party with no direct relationship to the project. Sub-letting is invisible in a tender and obvious on site, usually at the point where something has gone wrong and nobody present can decide anything.

What we do engage locally, and why we say so

Reinstatement and civil finishing labour, sometimes, under our supervision and to our specification. Cranes and specialist lifting where owning them would be uneconomic. Traffic management plant on some arterial work. That is the boundary and we disclose it at contract stage rather than leaving it to be discovered. Most contractors sub-let something; the ones who say so plainly are more trustworthy than the ones who claim otherwise, and a client evaluating bidders is better served by an honest boundary than by an absolute claim nobody can keep.

What it changes on your project

Programme control, because a schedule depending on a third party's availability is a schedule you do not control. Quality accountability, because the person who did the work reports to the person who signed the contract. Liability, which does not diffuse across parties when something goes wrong. And continuity, because the crew who surveyed a corridor are available to return when an excavation contradicts a finding, rather than that being a fresh commercial negotiation with someone else. We will put the undertaking in writing at tender stage — asking for it separates most bidders immediately.

Beyond the basics

Will you put the undertaking in writing? Yes, at tender stage. Asking every bidder for it in writing is the fastest way to separate the field.

Is anything engaged locally? Reinstatement and civil finishing labour sometimes, under our supervision and to our specification, and disclosed at contract rather than discovered later.

Why does sub-letting matter to a client? Because your contract is with us but the work is not, so every quality question routes through a party with no direct relationship to your project.

Does this make you slower on large programmes? No. It means capacity is planned against what we actually hold rather than against what might be available, which is why our dates hold.

How would we detect sub-letting on another contractor? Ask who employs the crew on site, and ask for it in writing at tender. Both questions are uncomfortable enough that the answers are informative.

Terms used on this page

Sub-letting — passing contracted work to another contractor, which separates accountability from the contract. Critical activity — work whose quality or timing directly determines project outcome. Continuity — the same crew being available across a programme, including for return visits. Liability diffusion — the spreading of responsibility across parties until none is clearly accountable. Disclosure boundary — the stated line between work performed directly and work engaged locally.