Most demurrage claims contain time that shouldn't count. Here is a charterer's checklist for testing a claim before you pay it — and how to put a defensible counter-position in writing.
Owners' demurrage claims are frequently overstated — not through bad faith, but because the charterer rarely has time to check them line by line before the deadline. Yet most claims contain time that should not count. Here is what to examine before you pay.
Was the NOR valid — tendered at the right place, at the right time, in free pratique if required? An invalid NOR can delay when laytime commenced, which reduces the time on demurrage.
Confirm the owner used the correct allowance — the right fixed hours or MT/hour rate, and whether laytime is reversible or per-port. An owner counting reversible time as separate per-port time will overstate demurrage.
This is where most savings sit. Cross-read the Statement of Facts against the charter party for periods that fall on the owner's or terminal's account:
Recalculate independently. Owners' statements sometimes contain simple arithmetic or rounding errors, or count time twice across ports. Your figure, built from the same SOF, is your negotiating position.
Ironically, the strongest defence is sometimes procedural: if the owner failed to present the claim with the required documents within the contractual time bar, it may be barred entirely. Check the deadline before anything else.
Respond with a clear counter-calculation: acknowledge what is due, set out each deduction with its basis in the charter party and the SOF, and request the owner's detailed workings for anything you can't reconcile. A documented, itemised counter-claim settles faster and lower than a flat refusal.
DemurrageIQ reads the SOFs, calculates laytime and drafts your counter-claim letter — in minutes.
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