An extension of time is won at the notice, not the claim
On a Hong Kong contract the right to more time turns on notice given in time and records kept from the start. The late, undocumented claim is the one that fails.
QScope Team · 20 April 2026 · 6 min read
An extension of time protects the contractor from liquidated damages when a delay is not its fault. On HKIA and government GCC contracts the entitlement is real, but it is conditional. It depends on notice given within the period the contract sets, and on records that show cause and effect. Miss the notice and the strongest delay in the world can still cost you.
Notice comes first
Both the HKIA standard form and the government General Conditions of Contract require the contractor to notify delay within a defined period of the event arising. That notice is the gateway. It is not the full claim, it is the flag that puts the certifier on notice and preserves the entitlement while the detail is worked up.
- Notify in time. The clock on the notice runs from the delaying event, so log it the day it bites.
- Identify the cause. Tie the delay to a cause the contract recognises as grounds for time.
- Show the effect. Link the event to the programme, not just to a general sense that things slipped.
Records are the case
The quantity surveyor’s contribution to an extension of time is the record, the programme, the progress data, the correlation between the event and the works that could not proceed. A claim built on contemporaneous records survives scrutiny. One assembled from memory months later does not.
Time and money are separate
An extension of time protects against damages for late completion. It is not the same as recovering the cost of the delay, which is a separate entitlement with its own basis. Keep the two apart in your own head and in the paperwork, because conflating them weakens both. There is no VAT or GST in Hong Kong, so any associated cost claim is expressed as a clean value figure with no tax layer.
The discipline
Diary the notice period from the delay event, serve the notice on the contract timetable, and keep the programme and progress records current so the claim is evidenced before you need it. On a Hong Kong job the extension of time is decided by the discipline you showed at the start, not the eloquence you muster at the end.
QScope logs delay events against the programme and holds the records that support an extension of time, so the notice goes out on the contract timetable.