Relevant events: what the list actually covers

An extension of time is not available because a job ran late. It is available because a listed event caused it to run late. Under the JCT standard forms that list sits at clause 2.29 and it is closed: if the cause is not on it, there is no entitlement to time, however unfair that feels.

What is on the list

The categories, in plain terms, cover variations and instructions; deferred possession of the site; impediment, prevention or default by the employer or those it is responsible for; statutory undertakers; exceptionally adverse weather; loss or damage from specified perils; civil commotion, strikes and similar; the exercise of statutory power affecting the works; and force majeure.

The precise wording of each matters and varies between forms. What follows is about how the list behaves rather than what each entry says.

The list that carries money is different

Loss and expense is governed by a separate list, the relevant matters at clause 4.21. The two overlap heavily, which is why they get conflated, but they are not the same and the difference is deliberate.

The clearest example is exceptionally adverse weather. It is a relevant event, so it can carry an extension of time. It is not a relevant matter, so it carries no money. The logic is that neither party controls the weather, so the risk is split: the contractor gets relief from damages, the employer does not pay for the delay.

Notice is usually a precondition

JCT requires the contractor to give notice forthwith when it becomes reasonably apparent that progress is or is likely to be affected, together with the expected effects and, so far as possible, particulars.

How strictly that is enforced varies, and some amended contracts make notice an absolute condition precedent. Where it is, a late notice destroys an otherwise good claim. It is worth knowing which version you are working under before the first delay arrives, not after.

Causation is the real test

Naming a relevant event is the beginning of the argument, not the end. The contractor has to show that the event actually delayed completion, which usually means showing it affected the critical path.

An instruction issued during a period when the works were already delayed by something else may have caused no additional delay to completion at all. That does not make the instruction less real. It makes it non-critical, and non-critical delay carries no extension.

What the certifier has to do

Assess within the contractual period, decide whether the event is on the list, decide whether it caused delay to completion, and grant what is fair and reasonable. Then write down the reasoning.

The reasoning is what makes the decision defensible later. An award with no recorded basis looks arbitrary two years on, whether it was generous or mean, and it is very hard to defend a number you can no longer explain.

The practical habit

Record the event against its category when the notice arrives, not when the assessment is done. By assessment time the correspondence has usually drifted into arguing about who was at fault, and the question of which listed event is actually being relied on has quietly gone unanswered.