Resources · Contracts and delay
The extension of time checklist,
usable straight off this page.
Everything an extension of time claim needs, in the order the week of the delay demands it: recognise the trigger, read the clause, give written notice inside the contract's timeframe, and build the evidence while it is still true. EOT machinery is a creature of your specific contract, operating inside your state's domestic building framework, so this page states no notice periods and no clause numbers. Everything here is general information, not legal advice, and the clause that governs is the one you signed.
01 / How to use this
A checklist, not a clause
An extension of time is the contractual mechanism that moves a job's completion date when a delay arises from a cause the contract says is not the builder's to absorb. The definition has two working parts, and this checklist is organised around them: the cause must qualify, meaning it appears in the contract's list of allowable causes, and the claim must be made the way the contract prescribes, which usually means written notice within a defined window of the delay arising. A real delay from a qualifying cause, claimed late or not at all, is commonly no entitlement. The EOT is unusual among contract mechanisms in that it is lost more often by silence than by argument.
This page deliberately states no notice periods, no clause numbers and no state-specific rules, because every one of them belongs to your contract and your jurisdiction, and a number quoted here would be wrong for someone. Where a timeframe matters, the instruction is the same each time: check your contract. The mechanism in full is covered in the extensions of time and delay reference, the other end of the machinery in liquidated damages, and the evidence layer in the site diary template. Everything here is general information, not legal advice; positions on a contested claim should be taken on legal advice about the actual document.
02 / The claim
What a claim needs before it goes in
Work down the list the week the delay arises, not the month the job runs late. A claim that can tick every line reads as routine paperwork; the same claim assembled months later reads as an excuse.
- The trigger event, identified and dated. What happened and the date the cause arose, which is the date the contract's clocks run from, not the date the effect was felt.
- The cause, checked against the contract's list. The EOT clause lists the causes that qualify. On the list, the time is claimable; off it, the builder absorbs it. No general list substitutes for the one in the clause you signed.
- Written notice, inside the contract's timeframe. The window differs between contracts, so check yours and diarise it the day the cause arises. A conversation on site, however agreeable, is not notice under a clause that requires writing.
- The clause relied on, named. The notice says which provision the claim is made under, so the assessment starts from the contract rather than from a negotiation about whether the machinery applies.
- The estimated effect on the completion date. The days claimed, stated as an estimate where the delay is still running, with particulars to follow if the clause allows it. Notice never waits for certainty.
- The evidence pack, referenced. The diary entries, photos, correspondence and programme impact set out below, attached or referenced so the claim can be assessed without a site visit or an argument.
- The current programme position. The days claimed shown against the critical path, because a cause only earns days if it delayed work that sets the finish date.
03 / Qualifying causes
The cause categories that commonly qualify
The recurring cause families in Australian residential contracts. Every one carries the same rule: the list that governs is the one in your contract, and no two clauses are identical.
Weather beyond the allowance
Build periods commonly carry an allowance for anticipated wet weather, and many contracts state one. Weather inside the allowance is the builder’s to absorb; weather beyond it can qualify. Know where that line sits in your contract before the first wet week, because every weather claim starts from it.
Client-caused delay
Late selections, slow decisions, delayed variation approvals, access not provided. Pre-construction is a hotspot: clients whose own scope changes are still moving commonly delay their own start date, and the machinery applies there too. These are the claims that feel petty to make and are lost most often by silence.
Variations
An approved variation that adds work usually adds time, and the time is claimed under the contract’s machinery rather than assumed. A variation priced without its days has quietly shortened the build period for free, and the time is close to unrecoverable once the moment passes.
Authority and third-party delays
Approvals, inspections and connections that sit with a certifier, a council or a utility the builder cannot direct. The builder’s obligation is usually to have applied in time and to press the process, not to control it, so the evidence includes when you applied and when you followed up.
Whatever else your contract lists
There is no standard list. Some clauses run to a closed list, others are drafted wider, and causes like industrial conditions or supplier failure appear in some contracts and not others. The list that governs is the one in the clause you signed, which is why it is read before the claim, not after.
04 / The evidence pack
What the claim stands on
The evidence is built during the delay, not hunted at claim time. It is what turns an assessment from a negotiation into a formality.
The diary entries, written on the day
Site closed, trades stood down, what stopped and why, recorded the day it happened. The contemporaneous entry is the spine of the claim; a record assembled after the dispute has started is treated with the suspicion it deserves.
Dated photographs
The flooded excavation, the undelivered frames, the site as it actually was. A client looking at dated photos of their own underwater slab approves a wet-weather claim in a week; the same claim as a bare assertion becomes a negotiation.
The correspondence trail
The email chasing the authority, the request for the overdue selection, the variation approval that landed three weeks after it was asked for. Dated correspondence is what shows the delay was someone else’s and that you pressed it.
The programme impact
Days lost on the critical path, shown against a current programme, not days it rained. A wet day that delays no critical trade may move nothing; a single day lost on the slab moves everything behind it. The programme is what turns an event into a number of days.
05 / The sequence
From trigger event to a moved date
Seven steps. The claim is won or lost in the first four, all of which happen in the same week as the delay.
- 01
Recognise the trigger the day it arises
Rain closes the site, a selection stalls, a variation lands, an authority sits on an approval. The clock the contract cares about starts when the cause arises, not when the builder feels the effect, and recognising the moment is the step most often missed.
- 02
Read the clause before the claim
Check the cause against the contract’s list of qualifying causes and note what the clause requires a notice to contain. If the cause is on the list the time is claimable; if it is not, the builder absorbs it. Your contract governs, not any article, including this one.
- 03
Send written notice inside the window
EOT clauses commonly require written notice within a defined period of the delay arising, and a claim outside the window is commonly a lost claim. The timeframe differs between contracts, so check yours and diarise it. Notice goes in even when the full effect is not yet known; particulars can follow.
- 04
Build the evidence as the delay runs
Diary entries each affected day, photos, the correspondence trail. Evidence made at the time, not assembled later, is what an assessed claim stands on, and it costs minutes now against days of reconstruction later.
- 05
Quantify against the critical path
Claim the days the cause actually cost the completion date, shown on the programme. Claiming every wet day regardless of what it delayed invites the whole claim to be discounted.
- 06
Follow up to assessment and get the approval in writing
The client, or the superintendent where the contract has one, assesses the claim against the clause and the evidence. Approved, the extension is recorded in writing and the completion date moves by the days granted. A verbal "fair enough" moves nothing.
- 07
Update the programme and the register
The new completion date becomes the baseline every downstream conversation measures against, and a running register of claimed and approved EOTs keeps the current contract date answerable at any moment, including the day someone reaches for the liquidated damages clause.
06 / The other end
How an EOT interacts with liquidated damages
Liquidated damages and extensions of time are two ends of the same mechanism. Where the contract states liquidated damages, they commonly accrue at the agreed rate for each day or week the work finishes beyond the contract completion date, as extended by approved EOTs. An approved extension moves that date, so every day legitimately claimed is a day damages cannot run against. That is why the EOT discipline is not paperwork for its own sake; it is the builder's structural defence against paying, at a rate fixed in the contract, for delay that was never theirs.
The operator's observation is that builders lose this twice. The first loss happens when the cause happens: the relationship is good, the delay is a few days, a formal notice feels petty, and the days get absorbed to keep the peace. The second loss happens months later, when the job is running late for ordinary reasons and the builder claims the whole history in one letter. By then the notice windows have mostly closed, the evidence is thin, and a claim that would have read as routine in week nine reads as an excuse in week thirty. Same days, claimable once, lost at both ends, and now counting against the date at the liquidated damages rate.
Whether a particular rate is enforceable, whether damages are capped, and what a blank or nil rate means are contract interpretation questions with real money attached; the mechanism is covered in the liquidated damages reference, and positions on a live dispute belong with a construction lawyer, not a web page.
07 / FAQ
Common questions.
Follow your clause, because contracts prescribe different content, but the working shape is four things: the cause of the delay, the date it arose, the clause being relied on, and the estimated effect on the completion date. Where the delay is still running, many clauses allow notice first and particulars later, which is exactly why notice should never wait for certainty. A short compliant notice sent inside the window beats a comprehensive claim sent outside it. The timeframe for giving notice is set by your contract, so check it rather than assuming a number.
Not by itself. An EOT moves the completion date; whether any money moves with it is a separate question the contract answers, and contracts answer it differently. Some attach cost recovery to some causes and not others, and many residential contracts are silent or restrictive. The cost of delay is real either way, because a longer job consumes more supervision, site facilities and the rest of the preliminaries, so the money question is read from the clause, never assumed from the EOT.
They are two ends of the same mechanism. Where the contract states liquidated damages, they commonly accrue at the agreed rate from the contract completion date as extended by approved EOTs. Every day of extension legitimately claimed is therefore a day of damages that never accrues, which makes the EOT the builder’s structural defence against paying for delay that was never theirs. The builders who get hurt by liquidated damages are rarely the slow ones; they are the ones who never claimed the extensions they were entitled to, so delay that was not their fault still counts against the original date. The mechanism itself is covered in the liquidated damages reference.
Yes, and framing is what makes it possible. The claim is the mechanism that keeps the completion date honest, not an act of aggression; client-caused delay is commonly a qualifying cause precisely so the date can reflect delays that were never the builder’s to absorb. A builder who lets those days pass unclaimed is carrying someone else’s delay against their own completion date, and if the job later runs late for any reason, the unclaimed days are gone, usually along with the notice window. Explained early as routine paperwork, before there is anything to claim, most clients accept it as exactly that.
The builder is late in contract terms, whatever the real-world causes were. Where the contract provides liquidated damages, they commonly accrue at the stated rate from the contract completion date; where it does not, a claim for general damages may be open to the owner. Both mechanisms turn on the specific contract and jurisdiction, so a builder facing either position should take legal advice on the actual document rather than relying on general information like this page.
08 / Keep reading
The references behind this checklist
The knowledge nodes, guides and product pages each checklist item draws on.
Build the evidence while it is still true.
VIABUILD keeps the site diary, the photos and the programme on one understanding of the job, so the record behind every delay claim was created the day it happened instead of reconstructed for the argument. The checklist becomes the system.