On a standard South African building contract, a verbal instruction is worth nothing. Only the Principal Agent (under JBCC) or the Project Manager (under NEC) can instruct a variation, it must be in writing, and your right to extra money or extra time dies if you miss the contract's notice deadlines. The contractors who get paid for changed work are the ones who confirm everything in writing on the day it happens. Here is the machinery.
What a variation is
A variation (a "contract instruction" under JBCC, a "compensation event" under NEC) is any instruction outside the original scope: extra work, omitted work, or a change to the specification. Every standard form lets the employer's agent instruct variations, and every standard form entitles you to be paid the proper cost plus a reasonable margin for them. The fights are almost never about the principle; they are about proof and deadlines.
JBCC: who may instruct, and how you get paid
- Only the Principal Agent (PA) can issue a contract instruction. An instruction from the employer directly, the employer's site agent or anyone else is not a valid JBCC instruction.
- It must be in writing, signed by the PA or an authorised delegate. There is no such thing as a binding oral instruction under JBCC: a contractor who acts on one does so at their own risk.
- Getting paid happens through the contract's adjustment machinery: amounts flow into the monthly payment certificates, and separate claims for loss and expense need written notice within the contract's time bar. The commonly cited JBCC time bars are 40 working days from the event for a loss-and-expense claim, and 35 under the Nominated/Selected Subcontract, but the counts differ by edition, so check the claims clause in your own signed document.
- Miss the notice window and the claim is forfeited, even if it would otherwise have been valid. JBCC time bars are enforced as written.
The contract documents are published by the JBCC.
NEC: compensation events and the 8-week guillotine
Under NEC4, the Project Manager (PM) issues instructions, and changes are handled as compensation events:
- You must notify a compensation event within 8 weeks of becoming aware of it (unless the PM was obliged to notify it). Fail, and the Prices, Completion Date and Key Dates do not change. The deadline is brutal and deliberate.
- You then submit a quotation for the event; the PM accepts it or proposes an assessment. If the PM sits on it past the contractual reply periods, deemed acceptance can apply, which is a powerful protection for the contractor. Documents at NEC.
Valid versus invalid instructions
Treat an instruction as valid only if it is written, signed by the PA or PM, within their authority and within the contract's variation power. Be suspicious of:
- Verbal instructions of any kind.
- Instructions direct from the employer that bypass the PA or PM.
- An "instruction" so far outside scope it is really a new contract, which you are entitled to price as one.
- Omissions of your work so the employer can give it to someone else, which can itself be a breach.
The fix for a verbal instruction is simple and must happen the same day: write to the PA or PM confirming what you were told, state that you treat it as a contract instruction, and ask for written confirmation before you proceed (or record that you are proceeding under protest).
Extension of time (EOT)
An EOT moves the completion date when the delay is the employer's fault or an excusable event (late information, late access, adverse weather where the contract allows). Its real value is that it stops late-completion penalties running (see Penalties and Performance Guarantees). The rules that matter:
- Notify immediately. Most forms require written notice as soon as you become aware of a likely delay, and some bar the claim if you are late.
- Claim in writing with a programme showing the impact on the critical path.
- The PA or PM must answer in writing. Under JBCC the PA grants or refuses the EOT formally.
The records that win claims
Variation and EOT claims are won with paper, not memory:
- The signed contract instruction or confirmed verbal instruction.
- A daily site diary, signed, recording labour, plant, weather and stoppages.
- The baseline programme and as-built updates.
- Timestamped photographs.
- Written notices delivered inside the time bars.
- Cost records: invoices, timesheets, plant hire.
- Minutes of site meetings, circulated and unchallenged.
Worked example
Omar is tiling on a JBCC project. On 10 March the PA tells him verbally to switch to a more expensive tile. The same day, Omar emails the PA: "I confirm I received a verbal instruction today to change tiles to Product X. I treat this as a contract instruction and will submit a cost adjustment. Please confirm in writing." The PA confirms the next morning. Omar submits his priced adjustment in the next payment cycle and is paid through the following certificate. Without that same-day email, he would have laid premium tiles at his own risk and his own cost.
Common mistakes
- Working on a verbal instruction. You carry the whole risk.
- Taking instructions from the wrong person. Employer, architect's assistant, site foreman: if your contract says PA or PM, only they count.
- Missing the time bar. Forty days, eight weeks, whatever your contract says: late notice means forfeit, however good the claim.
- No contemporaneous records. A claim assembled six months later from memory loses.
- Doing "new contract" work at variation rates. If the instruction transforms the job, reprice it.
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