NEC ECC: What fee percentage should be applied to accommodation?

Under option C, accommodation rented by the Contractor and paid directly by the Contractor, would this have the WAO percentage applied and the Direct Fee or only the Direct Fee ?

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It is not clear whether you are referring to Site Cabins or rental of an Office, but under NEC this would be categorised as Equipment, as it is used to Provide the Works but not included as part of the works.

Under the Schedule of Cost Components the cost could possibly be allocated to one or more sub-categories of Equipment, depending on how it is procured.

The WAO charge is calculated by applying the percentage for Working Areas overhead stated in the Contract Data to the total of People items 11, 12, 13 and 14., so you would only apply the direct Fee to the cost of this accommodation.

Note that the accommodation must be within the working areas to be classed as defined Cost, so if it is an office near to the Site but not within the Working Areas, it would be necessary to add this to the Working Areas, not least to capture the cost of People working in this accommodation who are Providing the Works.

Sorry should have been a bit more specific, it is the cost of renting a house/flat for the staff to live in during week, rather than the Contractor paying subsistence to them

In that case it comes under People 13(b) as the direct cost to which, s Andrew says above, the percentage for WA O/H’s is added.

Thanks for your reply, the issue not gone away. SCC People 13 says “payments made in relation to people for” . WAO would be applied if the individuals were paid an allowance, but the payment is to the Estate Agency not the People ?

There’s a distinction between item 12 and 13 in the SCC - 12 says “payments to people” whereas 13 says “payments made in relation to people”. So under 13 the person doesn’t have to receive the money. Clearly in your scenario payments made to an estate agency pass this test as they are costs incurred in relation to people. Remember though at the start of component 1 it defines who this applies to so you only pay the cost of renting a house if it is rented to a person who is directly employed and either normally working in WA or not normally working in WA but are working in WA. If the person is neither then you don’t pay for the person or any other costs related to them.