FIDIC Notice to Correct (Clause 15.1): How to Respond
It arrives on a Sunday evening, copied to head office: a letter from the Engineer headed "Notice under Sub-Clause 15.1", listing failures and demanding they be made good within 14 days. Half the Site team wants to fire back a furious rebuttal; the other half wants to ignore it as posturing. Both instincts are wrong. A notice to correct is the first formal step on the road to termination, and the response — in substance and in writing — decides which way that road runs.
What a Notice to Correct Is
Under Sub-Clause 15.1 of the FIDIC 1999 Red Book, if the Contractor fails to carry out any obligation under the Contract, the Engineer may give a notice requiring the Contractor to make good the failure and to remedy it within a specified reasonable time.
On its face it is a housekeeping clause — a formal way of saying fix this. What gives it teeth is the clause next door: under Sub-Clause 15.2(a), failure to comply with a notice to correct is a ground on which the Employer may terminate the Contract. That is why an experienced Contractor treats a 15.1 notice differently from ordinary site correspondence. Ordinary letters argue about money. This one is the loaded gun on the wall — most never go off, but every one of them can.
The 2017 Second Edition keeps the mechanism and tightens the drafting: the notice must describe the failure, state the Sub-Clause under which the obligation arises, and specify a reasonable time for the remedy. That checklist matters to both sides, as the next section shows.
Key Takeaway: A notice to correct is the Engineer's formal demand under Sub-Clause 15.1 to remedy a contractual failure within a specified reasonable time — and non-compliance is a termination ground under Sub-Clause 15.2. Treat it as a legal document, never as routine site correspondence.
What Makes a Notice to Correct Valid — and Invalid
Because termination can hang off it, courts read a 15.1 notice strictly. The leading case is Obrascon Huarte Lain v Attorney General for Gibraltar — a FIDIC tunnel project where the validity of the notice to correct was fought all the way through the termination. Out of it come the working tests:
- An identifiable, specific failure. The notice must point to an actual contractual obligation the Contractor failed to perform — a named clause, a named default. General dissatisfaction with progress or quality is not a failure; it is a mood.
- A reasonable time to remedy. Reasonableness is judged in the circumstances at the date of the notice — the nature of the failure, what remedying it genuinely involves, the conditions on Site. Fourteen days to re-sequence a programme may be reasonable; fourteen days to re-pour a contaminated foundation may not.
- An obligation that actually exists. A notice demanding something the Contract never required — acceleration to recover Employer-caused delay is the classic — stands on nothing.
This cuts both ways. An Employer who terminates on the back of a vague or unreasonable notice has built the termination on sand, and wrongful termination is among the most expensive mistakes in construction. A Contractor who receives a defective notice holds a strong card — but holding a card is not the same as ignoring the game, which is where the response comes in.
Key Takeaway: A valid 15.1 notice names a specific, real contractual failure and allows a time that is reasonable as at the date of the notice — vagueness or an impossible deadline undermines it, and any termination built on it. Judged strictly, because termination hangs off it.
How to Respond: Two Tracks, Run Together
The right response runs on two tracks at once — one on the ground, one on paper.
On the ground: if any part of the alleged failure is real, start fixing it now, visibly, and document the fixing. Nothing defuses a 15.1 notice like compliance. The goal is that by the specified date, either the failure is remedied or there is unarguable evidence of diligent progress toward remedying it.
On paper, respond in writing, well inside the specified time:
- Confirm receipt and take it seriously. A silent Contractor is writing the Employer's termination narrative for them.
- Separate the notice into items — respond to each alleged failure on its own. Accept what is real, with a remedy plan and dates. Dispute what is not, with reasons and clause references.
- Challenge defects in the notice itself — an obligation that does not exist, a failure described too vaguely to act on, a time that is not reasonable. Do it calmly and specifically; a challenge is a legal position, not a grievance.
- Trace the causes. If an alleged failure flows from an Employer or Engineer cause — late drawings, denied access, unpaid certificates — say so, and serve the corresponding Sub-Clause 20.1 notice for it. A 15.1 notice does not suspend the Contractor's own claim rights; failing to exercise them is how a defence quietly evaporates.
- Reserve rights, admit narrowly. Fix what needs fixing without conceding a general default. The words "the Contractor is in delay" in your own letter will be read back to you.
Key Takeaway: Respond on two tracks: remedy the real failures visibly and fast, while a written reply accepts what is true, disputes what is not, challenges any defect in the notice, and serves the Contractor's own 20.1 notices for Employer-caused items. Never silence; never a blanket admission.
Response Letter Template — Copy and Adapt
Here is a skeleton for the written track. Replace everything in square brackets, and be precise about which items are accepted and which are disputed — that split is the whole letter.
Serve it by the contract's notice method, keep the proof of delivery, and diarise the specified remedy date — that date, not the letter, is what Sub-Clause 15.2 will be tested against. And if any item calls for a counter-notice under Sub-Clause 20.1, that is a notice ChatNotice can draft for you in minutes — it is the one part of this response with its own unforgiving 28-day clock.
Key Takeaway: Answer item by item — accept narrowly with a dated remedy plan, dispute with clause-referenced reasons, question an unreasonable time, and reserve all rights. Serve it by the contractual method and diarise the remedy date; that date is what termination would be tested against.
Common Mistakes on the Receiving End
- Ignoring it. Treating the notice as bluster. If the Employer is building a termination file, silence is its best page.
- The furious rebuttal. An emotional letter that disputes everything, including the failures that are plainly real, destroys credibility on the items worth fighting.
- The blanket apology. The opposite failure — a conciliatory letter that admits a general default to keep the peace. It reads well in the meeting and terribly in the arbitration.
- Remedying without recording. The crews fix everything, but nobody photographs, dates, or notifies completion. Six months later there is no evidence the notice was complied with.
- Missing the counter-notice. The failure traces to late drawings or denied access, but no Sub-Clause 20.1 notice is served — and the 28 days run out while the team drafts the rebuttal.
- Letting the deadline pass in negotiation. Talks about extending the remedy period feel constructive, but unless the extension is confirmed in writing, Sub-Clause 15.2 is measured against the original date.
Key Takeaway: Six responses lose this fight: saying nothing, angrily disputing everything, admitting everything to keep the peace, fixing the failures without keeping evidence, missing your own Sub-Clause 20.1 counter-notice, and agreeing a new deadline only verbally. Each one hands the Employer a stronger termination file than the original failure did.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a notice to correct under FIDIC?
Under Sub-Clause 15.1 of the FIDIC 1999 Red Book, if the Contractor fails to carry out an obligation under the Contract, the Engineer may give a notice requiring the Contractor to make good the failure and remedy it within a specified reasonable time. It is a formal contractual warning — and it matters because failure to comply with a notice to correct is a ground on which the Employer may terminate the Contract under Sub-Clause 15.2.
Can the Employer terminate immediately after a notice to correct?
No. The notice to correct must specify a reasonable time for the Contractor to remedy the failure, and termination under Sub-Clause 15.2 only becomes available if the Contractor fails to comply with the notice. Under the 1999 forms the Employer must then give 14 days' notice of termination. A termination built on an invalid notice to correct — vague failure, unreasonable time — is itself exposed to challenge as wrongful termination.
What makes a notice to correct invalid?
Case law on Clause 15.1 — notably Obrascon Huarte Lain v Attorney General for Gibraltar — establishes that a notice to correct must relate to an identifiable, specific contractual failure, and the time allowed must be reasonable, judged at the date the notice is given. A notice that recites vague dissatisfaction with progress, fails to identify what obligation was breached, or sets an impossible deadline is open to challenge.
How should a Contractor respond to a notice to correct?
In writing, quickly, and on two tracks at once. First, take the notice seriously on the ground: if the failure is real, start remedying it and show the plan. Second, protect the record: confirm receipt, state precisely what is accepted and what is disputed, challenge any failure that is not an actual contractual obligation or any time that is unreasonable, and reserve rights. If the alleged failure traces back to an Employer or Engineer cause, serve the corresponding Sub-Clause 20.1 notice — silence forfeits that position.
Does a notice to correct apply under the FIDIC 2017 forms too?
Yes. The 2017 Second Edition keeps the notice to correct in Sub-Clause 15.1 and tightens it: the notice must describe the Contractor's failure, state the Sub-Clause under which the obligation arises, and specify a time for remedy that is reasonable in the circumstances. The tightened wording cuts both ways — it gives Employers a checklist, and it gives Contractors clearer grounds to challenge a notice that skips any element.
Authoritative Sources
This guide reflects the FIDIC Conditions of Contract and established construction-law authority. For the primary materials, see:
- FIDIC Conditions of Contract — the official contract suite published by the International Federation of Consulting Engineers, which sets out the Sub-Clause 15.1 notice-to-correct mechanism and the Sub-Clause 15.2 termination grounds.
- Obrascon Huarte Lain SA v HM Attorney General for Gibraltar — the leading authority on the validity of a Clause 15.1 notice to correct and the termination that followed it.
About the Author
Maisam Jiwani is a Project Director with 15 years' experience on major infrastructure and energy projects administered under FIDIC contracts. He writes from first-hand experience serving notices and managing contractual claims on live projects.