Your claim's expiry date is already set. Do you know it?
Pick your contract form, tell us what happened and when. We'll date every notice, particular, and response your contract requires - flag the ones that can extinguish the claim - and put them in your calendar.
The standard clock
…then most claims are extinguished. However good they are.
FIDIC 20.1 / 20.2.1 and NEC4's 8-week Clause 61.3 - and GCC amendments often cut 28 days to 14. The calculator below handles all of it.
Notice Deadline Calculator
Three inputs. Every deadline your contract sets, dated and explained.
General guidance based on unamended standard forms. Not legal advice - always check your executed contract, including Particular Conditions.
Your deadline schedule appears here.
Pick your contract form, tell us what happened and when - we'll date every notice, particular, and response your contract requires, and flag the ones that can kill the claim.
Why This Exists
Time bars don't care how good your claim is.
FIDIC's 28-day Notice of Claim, the quieter 84-day fully detailed claim bar in the 2017 edition, NEC4's 8-week compensation event window - these are condition precedents, not formalities. Tribunals across the GCC have enforced them against contractors holding otherwise unanswerable claims.
Most missed notices are not missed because anyone decided to skip them. They are missed because nobody dated the deadline on the day the event happened. That is the entire job of this tool - and of the claims management discipline behind it.
The Regimes
Three contracts, three clocks.
FIDIC 1999 - Sub-Clause 20.1
- Notice of claim within 28 days of awareness
- Fully detailed claim within 42 days
- Interim claims monthly for continuing effects
- Engineer's response within 42 days of particulars
FIDIC 2017 - Sub-Clause 20.2
- Notice of Claim within 28 days - explicit condition precedent
- Fully detailed Claim within 84 days - a second time bar
- 14-day lateness screening; silence deems the notice valid
- Applies to Employer's Claims too - check their dates
NEC4 ECC - Clause 61.3
- Notify compensation events within 8 weeks of awareness
- Project Manager replies within 1 week
- Quotation within 3 weeks of instruction
- Early warning failures cut the assessment (Cl. 63.7)
The GCC Reality
In this region, the textbook deadline is the optimistic one.
Employer-amended FIDIC forms across Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE routinely compress the 28-day notice window to 14 or even 7 days through the Particular Conditions - and add formality requirements about who is served, how, and where. Use the calculator's amended-period option, and if you are facing liquidated damages or a claim you fear is already barred, that is precisely the territory of our Cure practice.
Questions Contractors Ask
Notice deadlines, answered.
What is the FIDIC 28-day notice rule?
Under FIDIC 1999 Sub-Clause 20.1 and FIDIC 2017 Sub-Clause 20.2.1, a party claiming additional payment or an extension of time must give a Notice of Claim within 28 days of becoming aware - or when it should have become aware - of the event or circumstance. Under FIDIC 2017 the notice is an explicit condition precedent: serve it late and the entitlement is lost regardless of the merits. This calculator dates that deadline, and every deadline that follows it, from the dates you enter.
Are FIDIC and NEC notice periods calendar days or working days?
Calendar days. The 28-day FIDIC periods and the 8-week NEC4 period run in consecutive calendar days, including weekends and public holidays. That is why this calculator flags deadlines that land on a weekend - the deadline does not move, so the practical date to serve is the last working day before it.
What is the NEC4 8-week time bar?
Under NEC4 ECC Clause 61.3, the Contractor must notify a compensation event within 8 weeks (56 days) of becoming aware that the event has happened - unless it is an event the Project Manager should have notified. Notify late and you lose the entitlement to a change in the Prices, the Completion Date, or a Key Date. The apparent generosity of 8 weeks is exactly why teams miss it.
Do GCC contracts shorten the standard notice periods?
Very often, yes. Employer-amended FIDIC forms in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE routinely cut the 28-day notice period to 21, 14, or even 7 days through the Particular Conditions - a change many contractors only discover after an event has occurred. This calculator includes an amended-notice-period option so you can compute against your actual contract, not the textbook.
What happens if the notice deadline has already passed?
The claim may be time-barred, but that is not automatically the end. Depending on the form, the governing law, and the parties' conduct, late notices are sometimes salvaged through arguments on when awareness actually arose, waiver or estoppel from the administrator's conduct, the prevention principle, or civil-code good-faith provisions in GCC jurisdictions. The earlier a practitioner reviews the position, the more options remain open.
Is this calculator legal advice?
No. It provides general guidance based on the unamended standard forms (plus any amended notice period you enter) and is intended to help you diarise and prioritise. Your executed contract - including its Particular Conditions and governing law - always prevails. For a position you intend to rely on, have the contract reviewed by a qualified practitioner.
This tool provides general guidance based on unamended standard forms and any amended notice period you enter. It is not legal advice, and no consultant-client relationship arises from its use. Always verify deadlines against your executed contract and take professional advice before relying on any date.
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