UK joinery and fit-out
In bespoke joinery and fit-out, arguments about money usually start at a milestone: what was agreed, what was delivered, and whether anyone accepted it. This page sets out how those disputes arise, what evidence matters before payment, and how a tamper-evident record helps a later review.
Honest scope: Bespea is a governance and evidence platform operated by Bespoke Champions League Ltd (Company No. 16778449), registered in England and Wales. It does not hold client funds and is not itself a regulated payment or escrow provider. These pages describe the model. They are not a claim that every capability is live on every project, and they are not legal advice.
Bespea is built around three recurring problems in bespoke construction, fit-out and joinery: unclear scope, disputed acceptance, and payment tension. The work is custom, so 'done' is easy to argue about once the room is finished.
The usual record is fragmented. Photos sit in a chat thread, a change is agreed on site, and an invoice is chased without a written acceptance. When the outcome is questioned, there is no structured record of what was approved, rejected, held, or changed.
Problems also surface late. A defect that could have been recovered at a milestone boundary appears at final inspection, when the payment and the relationship are already under strain.
Before a milestone is treated as ready for payment, both sides need a written standard and a record against it. Bespea's model is evidence first: the milestone, the criteria, and the proof stay together.
During the controlled pilot, payments still move as they do today, between the parties' own accounts. Bespea records the decision to pay: evidence in, acceptance recorded, release confirmed. It does not take custody of the money. Payment readiness is the governed state in which the evidence has been accepted and the conditions for that milestone are satisfied. You pay directly, against that record.
A useful dispute record is one a reviewer can inspect without rewriting the history. Bespea keeps milestone evidence in a hash-linked, append-only trail, rather than a folder of messages that can be edited or lost.
A Proof Pack is the exportable project record: milestone scope, acceptance criteria, submitted evidence, review outcomes, challenge-window history, and related Decision Passport records where they exist. A Decision Passport is the record of one decision: what was decided, which evidence and criteria were used, who acted, and when.
The platform is designed to create a clear, tamper-evident trail that can support review under the Civil Evidence Act 1995 and help with project or procurement governance review. It is not legal advice, a legal guarantee, or a substitute for a solicitor or an expert witness.
What Bespea records before a payment decision, and how that differs from holding funds in escrow.
What clients and studios each use the record for, and who the controlled pilot is for.
How scope, evidence and acceptance are linked into one project record.
The exportable project record of evidence, criteria, challenges and decisions.
The record of why one governance decision was made.
Bespea's name for tying protected funds to evidence. Bespea does not hold the money.
What a client uses when accepting, rejecting or holding a milestone.
What a studio uses when submitting evidence and recording scope changes.
Free during the controlled pilot, on a real UK project between £25,000 and £2,000,000.
Because the milestone is where scope, delivery and payment meet. If acceptance criteria were never written down, or the evidence lives in chat and email, the parties are left arguing from memory about what was agreed and what was accepted.
Written acceptance criteria, evidence attached to that milestone, and a recorded acceptance or a documented challenge. Bespea calls the resulting state payment readiness. It is a governance record. It is not Bespea holding or sending the funds.
An append-only, hash-linked trail of what was submitted, reviewed and decided. A Proof Pack packages that project history. A Decision Passport explains a single decision. The point is that a later reviewer can see the record that existed at the time.
No. It makes the history easier to inspect. Legal effect depends on the contract, the facts and professional advice. The trail can support review under the Civil Evidence Act 1995. It is not a legal guarantee.
No. Bespea does not hold client funds and is not itself a regulated payment or escrow provider. During the pilot, payments move between the parties' accounts as they do today.
Free during the controlled pilot, for a UK bespoke or fit-out project between £25,000 and £2,000,000. Onboarding is done with you. No commitment beyond the pilot period.
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