Late Site Possession: Protect Your Schedule From Day One

Why does a late site handover by the owner put the whole project at risk?

When a Thai construction contract sets a start date, that date assumes the owner will deliver clear, unobstructed possession of the land by a specific day. In practice, delays are common: the existing tenant has not moved out, a neighbour's encroachment has not been resolved, the land survey markers were never installed, or the owner's bank release of the plot is still processing. Each situation stops the contractor from setting up the site compound, bringing in equipment, and starting structural work. If the possession delay runs two weeks, every downstream milestone — structural phase, MEP rough-in, finishing, handover — shifts two weeks later. Without a documented record of who controlled the original possession date, the penalty clause in the contract can still fall on the contractor even though the owner caused the slip.

What counts as formal site possession in Thai construction practice?

In most Thai residential and small commercial contracts, formal site possession is the moment the owner or their representative walks the contractor's supervisor around the plot boundary, confirms clear access, and hands over a key or an unlocked gate. At that moment the programme clock starts. Possession means the land is physically accessible, the plot corners are marked or a survey document is available, no tenants or third parties occupy any part of the area, and no active legal dispute affects the plot's use. Where a site-possession clause is absent from the contract, the agreed start date in the programme serves as the baseline. Documenting the actual handover day — and any reason it differs from the planned date — is the contractor's responsibility from day one, not something to reconstruct from memory later.

How to record a delayed start in SiteBoard's Gantt planning view

When the owner is not ready on the planned start date, open SiteBoard's Gantt planning view and push the first task — typically site setup and setting-out — to the actual possession date. Add a short task note explaining the reason: "possession delayed — tenant still in occupation" or "boundary survey not completed by owner." If the contract start date has passed without any handover, create a milestone labelled "Planned possession date (contract)" on the original date, and a second milestone for the actual possession date when it arrives. This two-marker approach creates a visible, timestamped gap in the plan — exactly equal to the delay the owner caused. The task note is not a legal document, but it is a dated record that supports any written extension-of-time request you submit and any owner-sharing view the owner has already been watching.

A worked example: a row-house development in Ratchaburi delayed by a boundary encroachment

A contractor in Ratchaburi signed a contract to build eight row houses on a 400-square-wah plot, with a contractual start on 15 March and handover on 15 September — 180 working days. On 15 March the contractor arrived with a surveyor and found a neighbour's fence extending 1.2 metres into the northern boundary, blocking the column grid for units seven and eight. The owner needed 23 working days to resolve the dispute through the local Land Office. During those 23 days the contractor set up the compound and completed setting-out on the unaffected southern section, gaining roughly four days of productive work. The contractor logged the situation in SiteBoard on day one — a task note, a photo of the encroaching fence, and a daily zero-progress entry on the blocked tasks. A written LINE message on day three formally requested an extension of 19 working days. The owner agreed, the contract end date moved to 9 October, and no penalty was applied.

How do on-site progress updates create a record before construction even starts?

The most common mistake during a site-possession delay is going silent — waiting for the owner to resolve the problem before logging anything. The better approach is to use SiteBoard's on-site progress updates as a daily journal from the moment the delay begins. Each day the site is inaccessible or partly blocked, log a zero-percent entry on the affected tasks with a one-line note: "North section inaccessible — boundary dispute ongoing, day 5." Attach a photo of the blocked area. After two weeks of this routine you have fourteen independent, timestamped records confirming the site was not available. Those records are far more persuasive in mediation than a single letter written from memory at the end of the project. The daily habit costs the foreman two minutes and builds the documentary trail automatically.

When should you formally notify the owner about the programme impact?

Thai construction contracts increasingly include a notification requirement: the contractor must give written notice within seven to fourteen days of any event that entitles them to an extension of time. Waiting until project close to raise a late-possession claim can forfeit the entitlement entirely. Send a written notice — a LINE message followed by an email or a formal letter — on the day the planned possession date passes without handover, or the day after at the latest. State three things: the date possession was supposed to occur, the fact that it has not occurred, and that you are formally giving notice of a programme impact. Back it up with a Gantt task note on the same day so the written notice and the schedule record share the same date. That parallel trail makes the claim legible and avoids any dispute over when you first raised the issue.

Using the owner sharing link while the site is on hold

Some contractors wait until construction begins before sharing the project plan with the owner. A late-possession situation is actually the best time to start. Open SiteBoard's owner sharing link as soon as the project is set up — even before the first task begins — and send it to the owner. They can see the planned programme, the possession milestone on the start date, and the current status showing the hold. This shared, real-time view achieves two things at once: it removes any ambiguity about whether the owner knew their delay was affecting the programme, because they can see it, dated, in the plan they are watching; and it shifts the conversation from conflict to problem-solving, since both parties are looking at the same live schedule and the question becomes "how do we clear the possession issue" rather than "who caused the delay."

FAQ: Can I claim additional costs when the owner delays site possession?

An extension of time — a longer programme without a penalty — is the baseline entitlement when the owner delays possession, and it is straightforward to establish if you have a dated record. Claiming additional costs on top of the time extension depends on your contract and whether you incurred genuine standby costs: equipment hired but unable to deploy, a crew on day rates standing by, or extended site compound costs on a daily rental. In Thai SME contracts these additional-cost clauses are often absent or vaguely worded. If additional costs are foreseeable from the first day of delay, raise them in the same written notice that claims the time extension — do not wait until the end. Once both parties acknowledge the delay in writing, negotiating the cost element is far easier than introducing it for the first time after handover.

FAQ: What if the owner says the site was available and I simply did not show up?

This is exactly the dispute that a same-day site-visit record prevents. On the planned possession date, visit the site regardless of whether you expect it to be clear. Bring your phone and photograph whatever you find — the locked gate, the neighbour's fence across the boundary, the tenant's belongings still inside. Send the photo by LINE to the owner's contact on the same day, with a note stating that possession was not taken because of the condition shown. That LINE message is timestamped and cannot later be claimed not to exist. Log the same photo and note as an on-site progress update in SiteBoard on that day. If the owner later disputes the site condition, you have a same-day photo record and a LINE message as evidence — neither of which depends on paperwork reconstructed from memory weeks later.

FAQ: How is the extension of time calculated when only part of the site was blocked?

An extension of time for delayed possession should match the actual number of working days between the contractual possession date and the day you received clear, unobstructed access to the affected area — not the whole project duration if only part of the site was blocked. If the northern section was blocked for 19 working days but the southern section was accessible from day one, the extension covers only the tasks directly delayed by the northern blockage. Tracking this precisely in SiteBoard's Gantt planning view — showing which tasks were delayed, by how many days, and why — turns your claim from a round number into a task-by-task breakdown the owner can audit. A credible, itemised claim tied to specific tasks and dates is almost always easier to settle than a lump-sum figure with no supporting detail.