Contractor guide · No 5 of 8

Notices & deadlines

Many disputes aren't lost on the merits — they're lost on notice: the clause that required written notice within a set number of days, the problem raised on a call instead, the window gone by the time it mattered. A missed window is a lost right, and the windows often pass unwatched.

What YPA does

Reads notices out of your WhatsApp, emails, letters and meetings — both directions — and files each as a dated row on the Notices Register: when it was issued, who it's to or from, the action it requires, and the deadline that action must happen by. Photograph a letter, forward an email, send a WhatsApp — YPA dates it the day it arrives. Nothing lives in memory.
Computes every window from the dates — issue date plus the days your contract allows — so each row shows the deadline and how many days are left, without anyone doing the counting.
Watches the response clocks and puts anything closing in your morning brief — on WhatsApp or email — an incoming notice that needs an answer inside a window, an outgoing notice that needs a follow-up — before the window closes, not after the right is lost.
Drafts the notice and the follow-up — the wording when you first know a delay is coming, the chaser when a window is running out. A formal notice comes to your email as an attachment to open, check and send on yourself; a short chaser arrives on WhatsApp. Ask for either in either channel. YPA keeps the dates; your contract keeps the meaning — the register never advises on what your contract requires.
Links each notice to its evidence and its story — the email, letter, WhatsApp or minutes, and the variation or RFI it belongs to — so the record runs end to end: the event, the notice, the window, the response.
Files every notice in your project folder and answers on demand — ask "which windows are closing this week?" or "send me the default notice from August" any time, on WhatsApp or email, and YPA answers from the register and sends the document to the channel you name.

Every notice and follow-up YPA drafts comes to you for review first. Nothing goes out until you send it yourself.

How it actually runs

Standard contracts tie rights to events: if you don't notify within the stated period — a delay, a stoppage, an instruction, a default — you can lose the extension, the cost, or the claim, even when the cause was someone else's.
Notices run two ways. Outgoing: what you must send to protect your position. Incoming: what arrives with a response window, where silence counts against you.
Each notice carries a date, a deadline and a required action. Between them sit the windows — the calendar days your contract allows to notify, respond, or both.
If the notice is written, dated and provable, the right survives. If it was said on a call and never put on paper, it doesn't.

Where it usually goes wrong

The expensive failure is never the deliberate one:

The incoming notice that sat in the inbox — arrived on a Friday, its window ran out while nobody was looking.
The outgoing notice that should have been sent earlier — sent three weeks after the delay was known, not on the day it first became apparent.
The call that should have been a notice — the problem was raised, but not in writing, so the window opened and closed with no record.
The deadline nobody wrote down — the extension request, the adjudication response, the reply that had to land within days, and the date lived only in someone's head.

What a YPA sheet looks like

Every notice goes onto the YPA Notices Register — one row per notice, both directions, with the deadline and the action.

YPA — Your Project Assistant · Notice Register Example project · generated sheet format

Notice No	Direction	Type	Subject	Date Issued	To / From	Evidence Ref	Deadline	Required Action	Status	Linked VO/RFI	Verified By	Source Tag
N-01	2026-04-16	In	Instruction	Stone cladding – balcony change	Architect → You	email 16 Apr	2026-04-21	Confirm receipt	Responded	VO-06	—	Email
N-02	2026-06-12	In	Default notice	Aluminium window installation – alleged delay	Client → You	email 12 Jun	2026-06-26	Reply within window	Responded	—	—	Email
N-03	2026-06-25	Out	Delay notification	Stormwater drawings late	You → Client	email 25 Jun	—	For the record	Sent	—	—	Email
N-04	2026-07-08	Out	Extension of time request	Foundation delay – changed ground	You → Principal agent	letter 08 Jul	2026-07-22	EOT adjudication	Closed	VO-01	—	Letter
N-05	2026-07-15	In	Instruction – clarify	Stop work at boundary wall	Engineer → You	email 15 Jul	2026-07-17	Confirm receipt + position	Responded	VO-09	—	Email
N-06	2026-07-28	Out	Variation notice	Tiling – larger format, labour only	You → Principal agent	WhatsApp 28 Jul	2026-09-12	Price instruction	Sent	VO-07	—	WhatsApp
N-07	2026-08-14	In	Notice of default	Roofing programme – client concern	Client → You	letter 14 Aug	2026-09-12	Reply within window	Received	—	—	Letter
N-08	2026-08-20	Out	Delay notification	Windows – revised sill height	You → Client	email 20 Aug	—	For the record	Sent	VO-03	—	Email
N-09	2026-09-01	Out	Extension of time request	Late information – balustrade fixing detail	You → Principal agent	email 01 Sep	2026-09-15	EOT adjudication	Sent	RFI-114	—	Email
N-10	2026-09-04	Out	Practical completion notice	Block A – PC claimed	You → Client	letter 04 Sep	2026-09-18	Client inspection	Draft	—	—	Letter

4 windows open · next closes 2026-09-12YPA watches the response clocks in your morning brief →

Example only — illustrative rows in the real YPA Notice Register sheet format.

What you can do today

When a notice lands, put it somewhere dated the same day — forward it, photograph it, or say it in a voice note. The window starts the day it's issued.
When something on site first looks like it will delay you, say so the same day — the notice protects the position; the argument comes later.
Write the deadline down twice — once in the diary, once where you'll see it before it passes.
Keep the evidence with the notice — the window is only as good as the paper that proves it.

Want the full picture?

We've built YPA for the way African construction projects actually work. YPA is the site file with a memory. YPA is onboarding its first live builds in small, limited cohorts. Pilot places are free for a defined period — and if we ever charge, the plan and its price will be shown to you before anything is billed.

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This guide is general information, not legal advice. Which events need notice, in what form and within how many days, comes from your signed contract and the applicable law — always check the contract before acting. YPA helps you record, track and draft; it doesn't give legal opinions.