How to Apply for an Extension of Time Under JCT (and Why Most Applications Fail)

Extension of time applications fail far more often on presentation than on entitlement. The delay was real, the cause sat with the employer, and the application still goes nowhere because it arrived late, named no Relevant Event, or asked the contract administrator to take causation on trust. Under a JCT contract with liquidated damages running, that failure has a precise price per week.

Notify early, particularise properly

JCT requires notice when it becomes reasonably apparent that progress is being or is likely to be delayed. Likely to be. The obligation bites before the damage is done, and contract administrators are entitled to take a dim view of a delay notice that arrives three months after everyone on site knew the job was in trouble. Whether or not your contract makes notice a strict condition precedent, and amended contracts often do, a late notice hands the other side a free argument.

The notice itself is short: the cause, the Relevant Event and clause relied on, the works affected and an estimate of the expected delay. The particulars are where applications are won. Set out cause and effect, not just effect. Which activities were hit, what the programme said before, what actually happened, and why the completion date moves as a result.

Prove it with the programme, not with adjectives

An application that says the works were severely delayed persuades nobody. An application that shows activity 240 sat on the critical path, was due to start on 3 March, could not start until 24 March because the instructed redesign landed on 17 March, and pushed completion by three weeks, is difficult to refuse. That means keeping the programme live and impacting events as they happen, not reconstructing everything a year later. It also means the boring records: site diaries, progress photographs, labour allocations and correspondence, kept contemporaneously.

Concurrency, mitigation and the traps

Concurrent delay is where most contested EOT claims end up. If employer delay and contractor delay genuinely run together, the general position under English law is that the contractor gets the time but not the money. Do not let fear of a concurrency argument stop you applying; do deal with it head on by showing which delay actually drove the completion date.

Mitigation is the other standing obligation. You are expected to use reasonable endeavours to prevent delay, and applications that show what you did to recover time land far better than those that treat every event as a windfall. Acceleration, by contrast, is not something to do unilaterally and hope to be paid for; if the employer wants the time bought back, get the instruction and the money agreed first.

Finally, keep time and money separate. The extension of time protects you from liquidated damages. The prolongation cost sits in a loss and expense application with its own rules and its own evidence. Conflating the two in one woolly claim weakens both. If a live application is heading for a fight, our delay and disruption claims team builds the programme analysis and the narrative that gets extensions awarded.

Common questions

When do I have to give a delay notice under JCT?

As soon as it becomes reasonably apparent that the progress of the works is being or is likely to be delayed. You do not wait until the delay has run its course or the completion date has passed. Notify when the risk becomes apparent, then update the particulars as the effects develop.

What is a Relevant Event?

Relevant Events are the listed causes of delay that entitle the contractor to an extension of time under JCT contracts, including variations, instructions, exceptionally adverse weather, and any impediment, prevention or default by the Employer. Identify the specific Relevant Event and clause in your notice; a general complaint about delay is not an application.

Does an extension of time get me loss and expense automatically?

No. Time and money are separate machinery under JCT. An extension of time relieves liquidated damages; recovery of loss and expense requires a separate application under the loss and expense provisions, based on Relevant Matters, and needs its own notice and substantiation.