Every day of delay has a price. See yours.
Enter your contract price, LD rate, cap, and dates. We'll show the exposure accruing day by day, how close you are to the cap - and what every day of extension of time is worth in money.
The standard arithmetic
On a 100M contract, that is 100,000 every day - weekends included.
Past the cap, LDs stop - and termination rights, bond calls, and general damages arguments start. The estimator below shows where you are on this curve.
LD Exposure Estimator
Your clause, your dates - the exposure curve your employer is already computing.
GCC forms commonly state 0.1% of the contract price per day, or a fixed daily amount in the Contract Data.
10% is the most common ceiling in the region; 5-15% is the usual range.
Arithmetic on the inputs you enter - not legal advice. Actual entitlement turns on your executed contract, EOT position, concurrency, and governing law.
Your exposure curve appears here.
Enter your contract price, LD rate, cap, and dates - we'll show the accrual, how close you are to the cap, and what every day of EOT is worth in money.
Why This Exists
LDs are not claimed. They are deducted.
Unlike your claims, delay damages need no tribunal - the employer's quantity surveyor runs this same arithmetic and the amount simply comes off your next payment certificate. Which means the employer's team already knows your number. The contractors who fare best are the ones who knew it first, and started converting chargeable days into excusable ones while there was still time.
That conversion has a name: a properly noticed, properly substantiated EOT claim. This estimator prices what that claim is worth on your project - to the day.
The Defence
Three ways the number shrinks.
Extension of time
- Every EOT day removes a chargeable day - day for day
- Entitlement dies without a compliant notice
- Substantiation needs a recognised delay analysis method
- Interim EOT claims keep the deduction from starting
Concurrency & prevention
- Employer-caused delay in the same window changes everything
- Acts of prevention can disable the LD clause entirely
- Both must be proven from programme and records
- Forensic delay analysis separates the causes
The mechanism itself
- Many forms require the employer to notice its own claim
- Civil codes let tribunals adjust excessive agreed damages
- Set-off without following the contract is challengeable
- Cap drafting often has exploitable gaps
The GCC Reality
In this region, agreed damages are arguable damages.
GCC civil codes treat LD clauses as agreed compensation that courts and tribunals can reduce where it grossly exceeds the actual loss - or strike where the contractor did not cause the delay. That is a genuine defence, but it is built from records, delay analysis, and the employer's own procedural missteps - not asserted from the floor. If a deduction has landed on your payment certificate, or the estimator above says the cap is close, that is the territory of our LD defence practice and the wider Cure team.
Questions Contractors Ask
Liquidated damages, answered.
How are liquidated damages calculated in construction contracts?
Most clauses follow the same arithmetic: a stated rate - either a percentage of the contract price or a fixed amount, per day or per week of delay - multiplied by the days between the contractual Time for Completion and actual completion, usually subject to a cap expressed as a percentage of the contract price. Under FIDIC, the rate and cap sit in the Contract Data or Appendix to Tender and are applied through Sub-Clause 8.7 (1999) or 8.8 (2017). This estimator runs exactly that arithmetic on your numbers.
What is a typical LD cap in GCC construction contracts?
The most common ceiling in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE is 10% of the contract price, though anything from 5% to 15% appears in practice - and some employer-drafted forms attempt to remove the cap entirely for certain milestone regimes. The cap is a commercial term, not a legal default, so the only reliable answer is in your executed contract's Contract Data, Appendix, or Particular Conditions.
Does reaching the LD cap mean the exposure stops growing?
The LD accrual stops, but the risk usually escalates. Prolonged delay past the cap is a classic trigger for termination notices, calls on performance bonds and advance payment guarantees, and arguments that the employer can pursue general damages for losses the LD clause never covered. Treat the cap as a warning line, not a safe harbour - by the time it is exhausted, the leverage conversation has changed completely.
Does an extension of time reduce liquidated damages?
Yes - day for day. Every day of EOT moves the contractual completion date and removes a day of chargeable delay, which is why an EOT claim is really a money claim in disguise: at a rate of 0.1% of the contract price per day, 30 days of EOT on a 100M contract is worth 3M. But EOT entitlement must survive the notice provisions and be properly substantiated with a recognised delay analysis - which is exactly where most claims fail.
Can liquidated damages be challenged in the GCC?
Often, yes - on several fronts. Civil codes across the region treat LD clauses as agreed compensation that courts and arbitral tribunals can adjust where the amount grossly exceeds the actual loss, or where the delay was not the contractor's doing. Separately, the employer's own compliance matters: many forms require the employer to notice and particularise its claim to LDs, concurrency and acts of prevention can defeat or reduce the deduction, and set-offs made without following the contractual mechanism are challengeable. None of this is automatic - it has to be argued from records.
Is this estimator legal advice?
No. It computes the arithmetic of a typical rate-times-days-capped LD clause on the inputs you enter, to help you see the size and speed of the exposure. Whether those days are actually chargeable - EOT, concurrency, prevention, the employer's compliance with the mechanism, and the governing law all change the real answer. For a number you intend to rely on, have the position reviewed by a practitioner.
This tool computes the arithmetic of a typical liquidated damages clause on the inputs you enter. It is not legal advice, and no consultant-client relationship arises from its use. Actual entitlement and liability depend on your executed contract, the facts, and the governing law - take professional advice before relying on any figure.
Get Started
Know the number before they deduct it.
One conversation is usually enough to see whether your delay position is defensible - or quietly compounding at your LD rate.
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