EOT stands for Extension of Time. It is a formal change to the date by which a contractor must complete the works, granted because something delayed the project that the contractor is not responsible for under the contract. It matters because almost every construction contract charges the contractor a pre-agreed penalty, liquidated damages, for every day of late completion.
The deal it corrects
A contractor signs up to finish by a fixed date. If the employer then issues drawings late, changes the design, or fails to hand over part of the site, the contractor cannot fairly be penalised for the resulting lateness. The EOT mechanism moves the completion date to reflect those employer-caused or neutral delays, so that liquidated damages apply only to delay the contractor actually caused.
What an EOT gives, and what it does not
| An EOT does | An EOT does not |
|---|---|
| Move the completion date | Pay the contractor anything by itself |
| Relieve liquidated damages for the extended days | Guarantee the works will finish by the new date |
| Preserve the employer's right to LDs for any further culpable delay | Resolve the question of who pays for the extended time on site |
Money for the extended period is a separate claim, called prolongation cost, argued and proved on its own.
How it is claimed, in five stages
Event
Something delays the works: late drawings, no access, a variation, unforeseen ground conditions.
Notice
A short letter within the contract's window, often 28 days from the contractor becoming aware. Under many forms, no notice means no claim.
Records
Diaries, photographs, correspondence, and programme updates accumulate while the delay runs.
Detailed claim
The full submission: contract basis, facts, cause and effect, delay analysis, and any cost.
Determination
The engineer agrees, rejects, or partly awards. Most claims settle here; the rest escalate.
The deadline that decides most claims
Stage 2 is where claims are lost. Contracts such as FIDIC make the notice a condition precedent: if it is not given within the stated period, the right to an extension is extinguished, however genuine the delay. Courts have enforced that strictly, most recently the Privy Council in January 2026. In India, many public contracts use similar time-bars, sometimes with shorter windows. The practical rule is simple: write the short notice first and argue the claim later.
Vocabulary you will meet
- Time-bar: wording that extinguishes the right if notice is late.
- Critical path: the chain of activities that drives the completion date; only delay to it moves the end date.
- Concurrent delay: contractor and employer delays running in the same period; the most argued defence.
- Prolongation cost: the money side of extended time.
- Hindrance register: the Indian-practice running log of obstructions, ideally countersigned by the Authority Engineer.
What this means in practice
- An EOT protects you from LDs; it does not pay you.
- The notice is the claim's survival; send it first, short, and on time.
- Records created during the delay decide the claim later.
- Time and money are separate arguments.
DraftMyEOT tracks every notice window in your contract's own calendar, files the records as they happen, and drafts the claim for your expert to sign.
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This article is general information about how these contract mechanisms typically work. It is not legal advice, and it is not a substitute for review of your specific contract by a qualified professional.