What are the Relevant Events in a JCT subcontract?
Relevant Events are the causes of delay listed in a JCT subcontract that can get you an extension of time.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
The answer
The JCT subcontracts call them Relevant Sub-contract Events. An extension of time moves your completion date, so delay damages are counted from a later date. In the 2016 JCT forms, the list includes variations and instructions, deferred possession and exceptionally adverse weather. It also covers fire, flood and the other specified perils, strikes, some acts of government and force majeure. Hold-ups and defaults by the employer, or the people it is responsible for, are on it too. In a JCT subcontract, so are hold-ups and defaults by your main contractor and the people it is responsible for. Relevant Events are about time. Relevant Matters are the shorter JCT list about money. So exceptionally bad weather can get you more time, but no money. A Relevant Event does not move your date on its own. Notify the delay once it becomes reasonably apparent, then send particulars and your estimate of the effect. Quote the list from your own subcontract, because amendments change it. How many days an event is worth is for a programming expert. Our part is getting the notice and the records out in time.
Example
Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.
The facts
A cladding subcontractor with damages at £3,000 a week is delayed three times. The frame is handed over 2 weeks late, exceptionally high winds stop crane lifts for a week, and its own panels arrive a week late.
What happens
- Each delay is notified as it becomes apparent, naming the cause and the start date, with particulars to follow.
- The late frame is a default by the main contractor, and the wind is exceptionally adverse weather. Both are Relevant Events.
- The late panels are the subcontractor's own delay, so no extension is sought for them.
- The main contractor grants 3 weeks. Only the frame delay also goes forward for money, as a Relevant Matter.
The three delays
| Delay | Weeks | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Late frame handover | 2 | Time, and money as a Relevant Matter |
| Exceptionally high winds | 1 | Time only |
| Late delivery of its own panels | 1 | Neither |
The outcome
The completion date moves by 3 weeks. The job finishes 4 weeks late, so damages are charged for 1 week, £3,000, not 4 weeks, £12,000.
To have every Relevant Event notified in time, with the records behind it, see our Delay Damages Prevention service.