Extension of Time

Construction contracts often set a date by which works must be completed, and events outside a contractor's responsibility can affect that date. An extension of time adjusts the contractual deadline if the relevant contract conditions are met, which helps allocate delay risk and assess whether late-completion damages apply.

AIA Contract Documents explains delay treatment under its A201 conditions, while a JCT 2024 flowchart illustrates another contract family; these are different forms with different notice and assessment mechanics, and a generic "force majeure" label cannot replace the actual clause. The cause of delay is only the first question: a client design change may disrupt work, but the contractor must show how it affects the completion path.

If the affected task has ten days of float, a five-day delay might not move the finish date, so programme evidence helps distinguish inconvenience from critical delay. Notice requirements can be strict, as the contractor may need to notify the architect or employer within a specified period, with particulars and updates, so put the contractual addressee and method in a project calendar.

Evidence includes instructions, drawings, daily reports, labour records, weather logs and updated programmes, and the team should record the state of work before and after the event and track mitigation attempts, not only the days lost. Weather treatment depends on contract wording, since a severe event may qualify while ordinary seasonal rain may not, and an extension should not be promised solely because a crew could not work one afternoon when other activities could continue.

Client-caused delay can also include late site access, variations or delayed approvals, so a contractor should identify which obligation was affected and when. If the contractor already had an unrelated critical delay, the analysis can become complex, and concurrent delays may require expert review under the governing law and contract.

The administrator or certifier assesses the claimed event and time effect, and the contractor should submit a clear, numbered claim stating the event, clause, notice date, programme impact and days requested, not an unstructured folder of photos. The decision may grant fewer days than requested or reject the claim.

Extra time and extra cost are distinct, since some qualifying events permit an EOT but do not compensate the contractor for extended site overhead, and a variation may support both under separate clauses. Price the financial claim with its own evidence and deadlines, and do not invoice extra preliminaries solely because the completion date moved.

Suppose a project completion date is 30 June and an approved critical delay is ten calendar days: a simple illustration moves the date to 10 July, subject to the contract's counting rule, though that arithmetic does not establish that ten days are warranted, so check whether the contract uses business days or has sectional completion dates. A schedule update should show both planned and actual progress, because if the contractor has also fallen behind through poor resource planning, a granted EOT for one event does not erase every independent delay, so track each cause separately and avoid "global claims" that lump all lost time into one unsupported total.

When a decision is issued, update project controls and communicate it to subcontractors, since a revised contract date may not change a supplier's delivery promise unless the supplier agrees, and keep the formal decision with the contract records. Disputes can arise over causation or the amount of time, so use the contract's escalation route, preserve evidence and keep working where required, because an EOT is a measured contractual adjustment, not a sympathy allowance, and an unresolved request is not a licence to stop the project or ignore safety duties.