NEC3 ECC: Failure by PM to respond to a CE

A CE was issued and the Contractor returned quote within the time allowed however the PM failed to reply within the agreed period so issued new CE cancelling original CE and issues a new CE for the same works. Can he do this?

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I am not sure what the cancelling and re-issuing achieves as I assume your quote will still be the same. Therefore whether or not he can do it is a red herring.

That said, even late the PM can still reject the quote and ask for a quote on a different basis or make its own assessment. so in a way yes what the PM has done is ok.

It seems to me though that the parties are tying themselves up in a bit of procedure rather than getting on with discussing the CE at hand.

What he can do is detailed in clauses 62.3 and 62.4.
If he has not done so, you should request that he does.
If you don’t agree with his reasons you have the option to re-issue the same quote.
I can’t understand what the Project Manager may get from simply re-instructing you to issue a quote for the same work.
If it’s an instruction under clause 62.1 he his simply delaying the date that the work can start.
If it’s an instruction under clause 61.1 then you are already progressing the work and this new notification won’t change the switch date between actual cost and forecast cost in the quotation because that is based on the original date of the instruction, as detailed in clause 63.1.
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