Send the delay notice the week the delay starts
A short notice sent the week a delay starts keeps your right to more time alive. Wait until the programme settles and you can lose it.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
Why it matters
The instinct on site is to work round a delay and say nothing until its effect is known. Most subcontracts want the opposite. They want a notice as soon as it becomes apparent that your work is being, or is likely to be, delayed, with the detail to follow. A delay notice is not a claim, and it needs no programme analysis behind it. It tells your main contractor what is holding your work up and since when, so it can act and look at your completion date. The notice period usually runs from when the delay became apparent, not from when you could measure it. Site teams lose it by being busy, not by being wrong. When damages arrive at the end of the job, the first question is where your notice was. A real delay that was never notified is the weakest ground you can stand on.
How to do it
- Give your site lead a one-page list of the events that count: late access, late information, other trades in the way, instructions that add work.
- Send a short written notice the same week one happens. Say what is delayed, what caused it, when it started, and that the detail, called particulars, will follow.
- Address it the way your subcontract requires, to the person and by the route it names. Keep proof that it was sent.
- Log it in a delay register with the date particulars are due and the date a reply is expected.
Example
Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.
The facts
On a Monday, a ductwork subcontractor is told the level 4 riser will not be handed over for another 2 weeks, because the structural openings are wrong. Its subcontract requires notice of delay when it becomes reasonably apparent, with particulars within 14 days.
What happens
- The site lead reports it the same day. On the Tuesday, the commercial manager sends a one-paragraph notice naming the riser, the cause and the start date.
- Particulars follow on day 12: the riser was handed over 16 days late, and the gang was moved to other floors where possible.
- The main contractor grants an extension of 8 working days to the subcontract completion date.
The outcome
The subcontractor finishes 6 working days after its original date. That is 2 days inside the extended date, so no damages are charged. Without the notice, those 6 days at the subcontract's £3,000 a day would have cost £18,000.
To have this set up for you, see our Delay Damages Prevention service.