FAR clauses/Part 49/Checked 15 Sep 2026
FAR 52.249-14
Excusable Delays
- Clause date
- APR 1984
- Prescribed at
- FAR 49.505(b). Insert in solicitations and contracts for supplies, services, construction, and research and development on a fee basis when a cost-reimbursement contract is contemplated; also insert in time-and-materials and labor-hour contracts.
- Applies to
- Cost-reimbursement, time-and-materials, and labor-hour contracts.
- Flowdown
- No flowdown required
52.249-14 contains no paragraph requiring its insertion in subcontracts. It is not listed in 52.244-6(c)(1) or 52.212-5(e)(1). - Full text
- FAR 52.249-14 on Acquisition.gov
… (a) Except for defaults of subcontractors at any tier, the Contractor shall not be in default because of any failure to perform this contract under its terms if the failure arises from causes beyond the control and without the fault or negligence of the Contractor. Examples of these causes are (1) acts of God or of the public enemy, (2) acts of the Government in either its sovereign or contractual capacity, (3) fires, (4) floods, (5) epidemics, (6) quarantine restrictions, (7) strikes, (8) freight embargoes, and (9) unusually severe weather. …
From the clause · Codified FAR · FAC 2026-01
Why it matters: It revises the delivery schedule (completion time in construction); it does not pay the contractor anything, and a subcontractor's failure is not excused if the supplies were obtainable elsewhere and the contractor ignored a written CO order to buy them there.
This is the codified text, not any agency's Revolutionary FAR Overhaul deviation. An agency running a class deviation may have this clause renumbered, rewritten or prescribed differently — check the deviation before you put a clause in a solicitation.
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2- 52.249-2Termination for Convenience of the Government (Fixed-Price)FAR 49.502(b)(1)(i)
- 52.249-8Default (Fixed-Price Supply and Service)FAR 49.504(a)(1)