FIDIC glossary · Disputes
Claim
Claim
In short
One party’s request to the other for additional payment, time or another entitlement. In 2017, a single procedure for both parties (Clause 20).
What is a Claim?
A claim is a party's assertion of an entitlement to additional payment, an extension of time, or another right under the contract. The 2017 editions reworked the concept: Clause 20 sets a single procedure for both parties' claims, where previously the Employer and the Contractor had different routes.
The mechanics are uniform. First, notice within 28 days of awareness of the event — a time-bar. Then a fully detailed claim within 84 days: the circumstances, the contractual basis, the causal link, and the calculation of the consequences. Then the Engineer's response: first an attempt to reach agreement, failing which a determination under Sub-Clause 3.7. Disagreement with the determination leads to the DAAB and then to arbitration.
It is worth separating a claim from a dispute. A claim is not yet a conflict: it is an asserted entitlement being administered in the ordinary course. It becomes a dispute only once a determination is unsatisfactory and a Notice of Dissatisfaction is given.
What kills claims in practice is rarely weakness on the merits. It is the absence of contemporary records — notes made as events happened, rather than assembled afterwards.
Where it sits in the contract
Related terms
Need this read against your own contract?
This explains how the mechanism works in the standard form. How it works in your contract, after the Particular Conditions, is a separate question.
Talk to an expert →A reference explanation of the FIDIC standard conditions. Not legal advice, and not a reproduction of the FIDIC books.