FAR 52.249-14 excusable delays is the clause that keeps a federal contractor from being defaulted when performance fails for reasons beyond the contractor’s control and without any fault or negligence on the contractor’s part. The catch: the only remedy the clause offers is a revised delivery schedule. No extra money. And it lives only in certain contract types, so before relying on it you have to confirm it governs your contract at all.1Acquisition.GOV. 48 CFR 52.249-14 – Excusable Delays
Which Contracts the Clause Covers
Contracting officers insert FAR 52.249-14 in cost-reimbursement contracts for supplies, services, construction, and research and development on a fee basis, and in time-and-materials and labor-hour contracts.2Acquisition.GOV. 49.505 Other Termination Clauses If you hold a fixed-price supply, service, or construction contract, this clause is not your source of protection. Fixed-price contracts contain their own excusable-delay language with different rules and notice requirements, so identify the clause that actually appears in your contract before you build a claim around it.
The Two-Part Standard You Have to Meet
Relief turns on a strict two-part test. The failure to perform must arise from causes beyond your control, and it must occur without any fault or negligence on your part.1Acquisition.GOV. 48 CFR 52.249-14 – Excusable Delays Both parts. A hurricane satisfies the first. Ignoring the forecast and skipping ordinary precautions can wreck the second. The Contracting Officer looks at what happened and at what you did about it.
Foreseeability and mitigation matter. A supply shortage you could have anticipated by watching the market, or a labor problem you never planned around, generally won’t qualify. The clause is for events that were genuinely unforeseeable and uncontrollable, not for smoothing over weak project management.
What Kinds of Events Qualify
The clause lists recognized causes: acts of God or the public enemy, acts of the government in either its sovereign or contractual capacity, fires, floods, epidemics, quarantine restrictions, strikes, freight embargoes, and unusually severe weather.1Acquisition.GOV. 48 CFR 52.249-14 – Excusable Delays The list is illustrative, and every item still has to clear the two-part test.
Weather is where contractors most often stumble. Ordinary seasonal weather doesn’t count. Rain in Seattle in November and snow in Minnesota in January are already baked into a reasonable schedule. To claim weather relief, you need to show conditions materially worse than the historical norm for that place and time. NOAA’s U.S. Climate Normals dataset provides the 30-year baseline that boards and courts typically use to evaluate that comparison.3National Centers for Environmental Information. U.S. Climate Normals A documented deviation from that baseline is what makes the claim credible.
When the Delay Traces to a Subcontractor
Subcontractor problems raise the bar. The delay has to be beyond the control and without the fault or negligence of both you and the subcontractor at any tier.1Acquisition.GOV. 48 CFR 52.249-14 – Excusable Delays Even if that is true, you can still be defaulted when three things line up: the supplies or services were available from other sources, the Contracting Officer directed you in writing to procure from those sources, and you did not comply.
p>So pointing downstream is not enough. Before you rely on a subcontractor-based excuse, be ready to show that alternative sources were not reasonably available, or that no such direction was issued. As the prime, you own the deliverable regardless of who was actually doing the work.
How to Request Relief
The clause does not set a fixed notice deadline. Paragraph (c) says the Contracting Officer will ascertain the facts and extent of the failure upon the contractor’s request.1Acquisition.GOV. 48 CFR 52.249-14 – Excusable Delays That is not permission to sit on it. Delay makes contemporaneous documentation harder to gather and makes the request look less credible.
A usable request identifies the specific cause, when the disruption began, and which deliverables or milestones it hit. Attach evidence that ties the event to your inability to perform: certified weather data, public-health orders, government closure notices, strike declarations, or the equivalent. Submit it in a way that creates a verifiable record of delivery.
What Relief You Actually Get
If the Contracting Officer finds a qualifying cause, the delivery schedule is revised accordingly.1Acquisition.GOV. 48 CFR 52.249-14 – Excusable Delays That is the whole remedy. More time, not more money. Cost increases you absorbed during the delay stay with you.
The revised schedule is also expressly subject to the government’s rights under the contract’s termination clause. An excusable-delay finding protects you from a default termination, but it does not stop the government from later terminating for convenience if its needs have changed.
Excusable Delay Is Not Compensable Delay
These are two different things, and mixing them up costs contractors real recovery. FAR 52.249-14 gives you schedule relief. It does not give you cost relief. When the delay was caused by the government itself, through a suspension of work or a stop-work order, the clauses that can produce a price adjustment are FAR 52.242-14 and FAR 52.242-15, or the applicable changes clause. If money is what you need, that is the path, not this one.
If Your Claim Is Denied
A denial is not the end. Under the Contract Disputes Act, you submit a written claim to the Contracting Officer for a final decision. Claims over $100,000 must be certified: made in good faith, supporting data accurate and complete, and the amount an accurate reflection of what you believe the government owes.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 41 USC 7103 – Decision by Contracting Officer A defective certification is fixable, but it slows things down.
Once the final decision issues, you have two forums. You can appeal to the relevant agency board of contract appeals within 90 days of receipt, or file at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims within 12 months.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 41 USC 7104 – Contractor’s Right of Appeal From Decision by Contracting Officer Choose one; you cannot switch. Boards are generally faster and less formal. The Court of Federal Claims runs full federal litigation procedure. Miss the deadline in your chosen forum and the denial becomes final.