How do I prove I was delayed?
What it does today
YourCA does not build an extension of time claim or a delay analysis for you. It does not read your programme for critical path. It gives you the record made at the time that the claim is built from, the dates on your own RFIs and instructions, and the day the notice that protects the claim falls due.
- Write the diary line on the day, in the Site tab. Say what you did, who was held up and by what. Pick the cause from the list. Do not type it.
- Photograph the thing that stopped you on the same day. A photo has its own capture time and files itself against that day.
- If somebody else caused it, name them in the line: another trade in your way, no access, or a late answer to an RFI.
- If the cause was a late answer, the RFI already has the day you asked and the day they answered.
- If the direction that caused it was verbal, record it as a site instruction. Then the day you were told is on the record, with the notice deadline worked out from your own contract.
- Every delay you record shows the day its notice is due under your own contract. It names the clause and has the notice ready to draft beside it.
- Delays on the Site tab lists every delay on the job with those dates. Ask about giving notice of a delay to learn how that works.
- Download the diary for the range. You get one document with every day in it, for the builder, an adjudicator or your solicitor.
Worth knowing
A note written up a fortnight later is marked as late, on purpose, because that is the first thing anybody asks you about it. The diary is evidence for you, and the other side can also use it against you. So record what happened, not what you think of the builder.