NEC ECC: PMI in excess of main contract by 25 times

I have a Client who has issued a PMI to include extra work against a NEC4 contract, the original contract was issued for design and detailing work only and had a maximum value of +/- 20K. The Client has now issued a PMI to include the supply, fabrication and installation which has a value of over 500K, is this a fair way to do this? Keeping in mind that all the dates, penalties etc. in the main contract were relevant only to the design only.

We have raised this as a concern as we believe it would be unfair to impose design only constraints against a full supply and install contract. We have requested a new contract be drawn up so as to properly address our concerns and in a effort to keep the contract terms “clean and relevant” to the supply and install.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

It sounds as if you are having work added into your contract which is outside what was contemplated by you or the other Party.

Have a look at the definition of the ‘works’ (in italics) in the Contract Data. If the work they are instructing to you to do is outside that statement, then you have a good argument for saying this is not in the contract you signed up to and therefore don’t have to do.

Having said that, if you have started doing some instructed work, then that would count against you.