How to record a delay on site

Every site has delays. The ones that cost money are the ones nobody can prove. When a delay claim is argued over months later, the question is rarely whether something went wrong. The question is what exactly was stopped, from what time to what time, and who was left standing around because of it. The Society of Construction Law's guide on delay claims, which is widely used across the industry, says the people who assess these claims “often find that there is uncertainty and a lack of records”. ^[1]

A good delay entry only takes a couple of minutes to write on the day. Here is what goes in it.

What to write down

• When you first noticed the problem, with the date and time. Contracts often set deadlines that start from that moment.
• Where it happened. Name the area or the part of the job clearly enough that someone could find it on a drawing.
• Which task it stopped. Use the same name that the task has on the programme, so the two can be matched up later.
• What is in the way, written as a fact. For example, write “no access, gas main diversion not finished”, not “utilities messing us about again”.
• Who and what was affected. Name the gang, or give their trade and how many there were, and list each machine. Say whether they stood idle or were moved to other work.
• How things stood each day until the problem was cleared, and the date and time it cleared.
• Who you told, and when.
• Photos, with the time and place each one was taken.
• The weather, if the weather caused the delay. Use a proper weather record rather than a guess.

This list follows the industry guide's advice on recording anything that blocks progress. It asks for the date the problem started and the date it finished, how things stood each day, and which areas and tasks were affected.^[1]

When work slows down rather than stops

A slowdown, which is often called disruption, is harder to prove than a delay, because the work carries on. A disruption claim is worked out by comparing how much work got done per hour while things were going wrong with how much got done when things were normal. So as well as the hours, record how much was done: metres laid, cubic metres poured, units fixed. The records that make a disruption claim are the daily hours spent on each task, the amount of work finished and a note of each thing that got in the way.^[2]

A weak entry and a strong one

Weak: “Drainage held up, access problems.”

Strong: “09:20: drainage run D4 to D7 (programme task D-210) stopped. Access road blocked by the scaffolders' delivery lorry, which had been unloading since 08:50. 360 excavator EX-04 and a three-man gang stood until 10:45, then the gang moved to kerbing on AD05. Told the site manager at 09:25. Photos taken at 09:22 and 10:40. Road cleared at 10:45.”

The strong entry answers every question a quantity surveyor will ask, and nobody can claim it was written up later.

Three rules for a record that stands up

1. Write it on the day. The industry guide says records must be made while the work is happening, “and not afterwards”.^[1] Courts take the same view. When people's memories and the site records disagree, the records usually win.^[3]
2. Stick to facts, not opinions. The guide asks for records that “set out facts only and offer no opinions”. If you blame someone in the diary, it can be used against you later.^[1]
3. Make sure it agrees with your other records. If the diary says the gang stood idle but the labour allocation sheet books them to the task, write down why. Differences that nobody explains are where claims fall apart.^[1]

Writing it in the diary is not the same as telling the client

This catches people out more than anything else. Writing a delay in the diary proves that it happened, but it doesn't tell the client about it. Almost every contract says the client must be told separately and quickly, in the way the contract sets out, and some say a late notice loses the claim.^[1] This is called giving notice. It is usually done by your manager or the commercial team, so make sure they know about the delay straight away.

• JCT contracts, which are common on building jobs, say you must tell the client about any extra cost a delay is causing as soon as possible. A Scottish court has ruled that if this notice is late, the claim for that cost can be lost completely, so treat the deadline as strict.^[4]
• NEC4 contracts, which are common on large infrastructure jobs, have two steps. First, you must give an “early warning” as soon as you spot anything that could add cost or cause a delay. Second, once something has happened that the client should pay for, you must tell them within eight weeks of finding out. If you miss the eight weeks, in most cases you won't get any extra time or money.^[5]

In one court case, Van Oord v Allseas (2015), the contractor hit unexpected deep peat. Their contract gave them five days to give notice, and they gave it two days late. Their claim for the extra cost failed on that point alone, before the court even looked at what the ground conditions had cost them.^[6]

So finish every delay entry by writing down who you passed it on to, so that notice gets given. For the rest of the day's record, see what to record in a site diary, and for idle machines and gangs, see recording standing time.