JCT: delay, time and loss and expense

Two lists, not one

Contract text Relevant Events earn time. Relevant Matters earn money. They overlap but they are not the same list, and an event that appears on the first and not the second earns an extension without compensation. This is the single most useful thing to know about the form.

Notice

The contractor notifies when delay becomes reasonably apparent, rather than within a fixed countdown. The obligation is not decorative: a late notice weakens the position, invites questions about what else went unrecorded, and in some forms bears on what can fairly be assessed.

Assessment and review

On the traditional forms the architect or contract administrator grants what is fair and reasonable on the material provided. On design and build the employer’s agent does. Most forms also provide a review after practical completion, when the full picture is available, which is one reason the record has to survive the project.

Loss and expense

The money mechanism requires notification, information and particulars, and ascertainment of the actual loss from the records. Later editions tightened those requirements. Which edition applies, and how it has been amended, changes the process materially.

What amendments usually change

• Adding notice conditions with hard consequences, which the unamended form does not contain.
• Allocating concurrency expressly against the contractor.
• Allocating float to the employer.
• Narrowing the Relevant Matters, or capping loss and expense.