Where a variation is instructed after the completion date but before practical completion, is the extension of time assessed on the net or the gross basis, and does the late variation put time at large?
A variation instructed after the completion date has passed raises three arguments at once: a gross extension to the date of the instruction, a net extension of the actual delay, or time at large. Which one applies decides who carries the overrun and the damages.
The net method applies: the extension is the period of delay the variation actually causes, added to the existing completion date, which may fall before the variation was issued; a late variation covered by the extension of time clause does not put time at large
Where a variation is instructed after the completion date has passed but before the works are complete, the extension of time is assessed on the net basis. The contractor is credited with the period of delay the variation actually causes, added to the existing completion date, not with an extension running through the instruction date and into the subsequent period. Because only the variation's own delay is allowed, the revised completion date can fall at a point before the variation was instructed. The gross method is rejected: it would let the contractor absorb its own earlier delay. The late variation does not put time at large either, because an instructed variation is a relevant event the clause caters for, and a workable extension of time clause keeps the completion obligation alive. Some engineering forms reach a similar result by suspending liquidated damages during the variation delay instead of moving the date.
| Net method | Extension is the delay the variation actually causes, added to the existing completion date |
| Gross method | Rejected: it would let the contractor recover its own culpable delay |
| Effect on the date | The revised completion date can fall before the variation was issued |
| Time at large | No: a variation the clause covers does not set time at large |
| Contiguous | The extension lengthens the existing period, not a free-standing floating period |
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