How long is a normal pause?

Weeks, for permits, weather or a change of contractor. Months with no explanation and no visible mobilisation is a different situation and should be treated as one.

Should I join a buyer group?

Usually yes, for information and for shared legal cost. Treat what circulates in one as leads to verify rather than as facts, and do not let a group's collective decision substitute for advice on your own contract.

Is it too late to do anything?

Almost never at the point work stops. It becomes late once a long-stop date passes without the notice your contract requires, which is why the clauses come before the negotiation.

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Delays and overruns

Construction has stopped on your project: first steps

Establish the facts before acting: whether work has stopped or slowed, for how long, and across the whole site or part of it. Then read the delay and termination clauses, put your questions in writing, and take local advice before any long-stop date passes.

If work has stopped, establish the facts before acting: whether it has stopped or only slowed, for how long, and whether it affects the whole site or part of it. Then read your delay and termination clauses, put your questions to the developer in writing, and take local advice before any long-stop date passes.

First, establish what has actually happened

Stopped and slowed look identical from a distance and lead to different decisions. So does a site paused for a permit, a site paused for a season, and a site paused because the contractor has not been paid.

Get somebody to look, on a stated date, and record what is there: which trades are present, whether plant remains, whether materials are on site, and what has changed since the last known state. A dated record is also what any later claim will need.

Then read three things

The delay clause: grace period, extension events, and who declares them.
The long-stop date, and the notice you must give to preserve a remedy.
The payment schedule: whether anything further falls due while the site is stopped.

Put the questions in writing

What has caused the stoppage, and when did it begin.
Whether an extension event is being claimed, and on what grounds.
What the revised programme is, stage by stage, not as a single completion date.
Whether the contractor remains engaged.
What the current state of the project account is, where one exists.

What not to do

Do not accelerate payments to help the developer restart. It is the single most common way buyers turn a recoverable position into an unrecoverable one, and it is usually proposed as cooperation.

Do not stop scheduled payments without advice either. On most contracts that is a default, and it can hand the developer a right to terminate against you while their own delay is still within the grace period.

The first steps when a site stops are the same whatever caused it: confirm what has actually happened with a dated record, read the delay and long-stop clauses before reacting, and put your questions in writing rather than acting on what a buyer group is saying.

Last checked 10 September 2026

Questions on this

How long is a normal pause?: Weeks, for permits, weather or a change of contractor. Months with no explanation and no visible mobilisation is a different situation and should be treated as one.
Should I join a buyer group?: Usually yes, for information and for shared legal cost. Treat what circulates in one as leads to verify rather than as facts, and do not let a group's collective decision substitute for advice on your own contract.
Is it too late to do anything?: Almost never at the point work stops. It becomes late once a long-stop date passes without the notice your contract requires, which is why the clauses come before the negotiation.

All guides