Delay Notices: What to Include and When to Send Them

A delay notice is the letter that says, in writing and on time, that something is happening that may affect the schedule. It doesn't have to prove anything. It has to exist, reach the right person, and arrive within the window the contract gives you. Many legitimate requests for time have been lost because the notice was late or never sent, and the schedule analysis that followed never got a hearing. This post covers when to send one, what goes in it, and a template outline you can adapt.

This is general information, not legal advice. Notice requirements are set by your contract, and contracts vary a lot. Read the actual clauses, and talk to counsel if a significant claim is at stake.

Notice, claim, and analysis are different things

People blur these together, and that's how notices end up late. The notice comes first and is short. The analysis and the request for time come later.

The point of separating them: don't hold the notice until you have the analysis. If you wait to send a notice until you know how many days you'll ask for, you'll often miss the window.

When to send it

Send it when you first know, or reasonably should know, that an event may delay the work. Not when the delay is confirmed. Not when you've priced it. When it starts.

Most contracts set a deadline measured in days from the event, or from when the contractor first recognized it. The AIA A201 general conditions, for example, set a 21-day window for initiating claims. Many owner-written contracts and public agency contracts set shorter windows, sometimes for the initial notice specifically, with a longer period for the detailed submission. Look for the clause in the general conditions, then check the supplementary conditions and Division 01 for changes. The scheduling spec (usually Section 01 32 16) often adds its own requirements for how time extensions are requested.

Some practical triggers that should prompt a notice the same week:

• An RFI response that changes scope, or an RFI that's past its contractual response time and still blocking work.
• A submittal that comes back "revise and resubmit" for reasons outside the submitted documents.
• Discovering a condition in the ground or in an existing building that differs from the documents.
• An owner directive, field order, or verbal instruction to change sequence, stop, or accelerate.
• Owner-furnished equipment or owner contractor work that is late or projected to be late.
• A permit, utility, or inspection that's held up by something outside your control.
• Weather that exceeds what was planned for. See Documenting Weather Delays So They Hold Up.

If you're not sure whether something will cause delay, send the notice anyway. A notice about an event that ends up with no impact costs a page of paper. A missing notice about an event that ended up costing three weeks can cost the three weeks.

Who it goes to

The contract usually names the person or role that must receive notices and how: by letter, email, or a project management system, sometimes with a specified address. Follow that exactly. A note in the OAC meeting minutes, a comment on a schedule update, or a conversation with the owner's rep in the trailer often doesn't count as written notice, even if everyone knew. Use the meeting to discuss it, then send the letter.

Copy the architect or engineer if the contract routes communications through them. Keep proof of delivery.

What to include

Keep the initial notice short and factual. It needs to identify the event well enough that nobody can later say they didn't know what you were talking about.

• A clear subject line: "Notice of Delay: Revised Slab Design, Area B."
• The contract clause or clauses under which notice is given.
• What happened, in plain terms, with dates.
• The documents involved: RFI numbers, directive numbers, submittal numbers, letters.
• The work affected, by activity name and ID from the current schedule.
• Whether the affected work is on or near the critical path in the current update.
• A statement that the event may affect contract time and cost, and that you reserve the right to request both.
• When you expect to provide more detail (the analysis, or the next update).
• What you're doing to mitigate, if anything.
• What you need from the other party to limit the delay: a decision, a response, access.

Avoid in the initial notice:

• Guessing at a number of days you'll later have to walk back.
• Blame language and adjectives. The facts carry it.
• Mixing several unrelated events in one letter. One event per notice keeps them traceable.

A template outline

Adapt this to your contract's terms and your company's letterhead.

Subject: Notice of Delay No. 07 - Revised Slab Design, Area B
Contract: [Project name, contract number]
Reference: [General conditions clause(s) for notice of delay/claims]

1. Event
   On [date], we received [RFI 042 response / Directive 05] revising
   the slab-on-grade design in Area B to add underslab conduit.

2. Work affected
   Activity SOG-B-110 "Slab on grade, Area B" and successors.
   In the [month] update (data date [date]), SOG-B-110 has
   7 working days of total float.

3. Expected effect
   Revised drawings are required before conduit and slab work can
   proceed. This event may delay the work and the contract completion
   date. We reserve the right to request an extension of contract
   time and an adjustment to the contract sum.

4. Mitigation
   We have resequenced Area A pours to proceed first.

5. Requested action
   Please provide revised drawings by [date] to limit the impact.

6. Next steps
   We will submit a time impact analysis within [contract period]
   of receiving revised drawings.

Notice the float statement in item 2. It tells the reader the event isn't critical yet, and it sets up the analysis honestly. If the event later eats through those 7 days and keeps going, you have the record that you warned them while it was still float.

Keep it going while the event continues

Long events need follow-up. If a redesign drags on for six weeks, send a short supplemental notice with each schedule update or at whatever interval the contract requires: the event is continuing, here's its current status, here's what it's doing to the forecast. This prevents the argument that the owner was told once and then heard nothing.

Tie it to the schedule

The notice gets much stronger when it lines up with the schedule record:

• Reference activity IDs from the current accepted update.
• Note the event in the update narrative for the month it began.
• Add a comment or note on the affected activity, dated, with the notice number.
• When you prepare the fragnet, use the event date from the notice as its start. See Fragnets: What They Are and How to Write One.

A notice, an update narrative, a fragnet, and a time impact analysis that all tell the same story with the same dates are hard to argue with. Four documents that each tell it a little differently are easy to argue with.

Owners send notices too

This isn't only a contractor tool. Owners and their reps should put the contractor on notice in writing when the contractor's progress puts a milestone at risk, when a recovery schedule is required, or when the owner disputes a claimed delay. The same rules apply: factual, specific, on time, to the right person.

Checklist

• Send the notice when the event starts, not when its impact is known.
• Find the notice clause and its deadline before you need it, at the start of the job.
• Deliver it the way the contract says, to the person the contract names.
• Identify the event, the dates, the documents, and the affected activities by ID.
• Reserve time and cost without guessing at numbers.
• Follow up with supplemental notices while the event continues.
• Keep the notice, the update narrative, and the eventual analysis consistent.