Clauses · FAR · Termination
FAR 52.249-8 Default (Fixed-Price Supply and Service)
Does the regulation require it to flow down?
No
Mirror out of risk management, not mandate: (d) only relieves the prime of excess costs if the cause of the sub's default was beyond the control of both, without the fault of either, AND no substitute supplier was available in time — a very hard test. The prime mirrors the clause so it can terminate the sub for default and pass on the reprocurement bill when the Government charges it.
A clause can reach your subcontract without a mandate. Once it is in your document, it is a contract term all the same. The missing mandate is a fact about the regulation. It is not a ruling on your order.
Checked against acquisition.gov on 2026-08-04 · edition APR 1984 (Basic; Alt I APR 1984 for transportation) · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗
What it makes you produce
One item for your checklist.
Nothing to send now
It does not hold the order. It decides what money moves later — what you can claim, what can be claimed from you, and what can be held back — and none of that changes after signature.
A contemporaneous record of any cause beyond your control and without your fault or negligence — the examples run from an act of God or of the Government through fire, flood, epidemic, quarantine, strike, freight embargo and unusually severe weather
FAR 52.249-8(c)
When it is used
FAR 49.504(a)(1) directs the contracting officer to insert this clause when a fixed-price contract is contemplated and the amount is expected to exceed the simplified acquisition threshold. That paragraph says nothing about commercial products or commercial services; the commercial carve-out is FAR 49.002(a)(2), which keeps part 49 off commercial product and commercial service contracts awarded using part 12 procedures, and which turns on how the contract one level up was awarded rather than on what you sell. No flow-down mandate — but (c)/(d) make the prime liable for the default 'of subcontractors at any tier', except when the cause is beyond the control of both and no substitute source is available in time. That is why the prime mirrors the default regime (with cure notice) into each sub: your delay is its default.
Read closely
(a)(2) is a cure period, not a filing: where the alleged default is failure to make progress or failure to perform another provision of the contract, the termination right may be exercised only if the failure itself is not cured within 10 days of the notice, or more where the contracting officer authorizes it in writing. The clause asks for no written answer, no plan and no dates. (e) lets the buyer demand transfer of completed and partly completed supplies, materials, tooling and drawings after a default termination, and (g) converts an improper or excusable default into a termination for convenience.
The 7 templates that name it, with the line
Source: acquisition.gov, FAR 52.249-8, 49.504(a)(1) and 49.002(a)(2) (verified 2026-08-04; both prescription paragraphs re-read verbatim 2026-08-07)
This is research, not legal advice. It states what the regulation says about this clause and cites the paragraph behind it. It does not rule on your order, and it does not rule on whether a prime's markings are correct.