NEC 3/NEC4 Option B & D - Remeasure of staff/prelims in a BoQ

1

Hello - This question follows on from a recent post on the forum. When using a unamended NEC 3/NEC4 Option B, or D contract, are the staff rates open to remeasurement ? For example if the BoQ listed the following:

Item: Unit Quantity: Rate:

Project Manager Per Week 15 £3,000

The Contractor reaches Completion in week 12, having invoiced for £36,000 for the PM as part of the Price of Work Done to Date. I believe in this instance the staff rates would be remeasurable (i.e the Contractor is not getting paid the full 15 weeks for the PM, only the 12 weeks). This being the case the Contractor should notify a Compensation Event under Cl60.4 at the end of Week 12 (assuming the value is >0.05% of the Total of the Prices), they would claim the remeasure has increase the overall “unit rate” for this line item as the PM was committed to the project for 15 weeks by the company.

I have come across conflicting views on whether staff rates/prelims are open to remeasure. My view is they are if they are in the BoQ are individual line items, to my knowledge the NEC contract does not state otherwise, or specifically that they are not open to remeasure.

2

For NEC4 ECC main option B the definition of Price for Work Done to Date relates to the quantity of work which is completed for each item in the BoQ.

If the item in question has been measured in accordance with the stated method of measurement, (where it isn’t it could be subject to an instruction under clause 60.6), then the principle of ‘re-measure’ would apply for the purposes of assessing a payment. This will apply to preliminaries as much as any other item.

One issue to consider is whether the quantity of work has been ‘completed’. If, for example, the project manager only worked for 3 days one week, what would you pay in this instance? This would be a difficult issue to assess, however, where there is simply a rate per week as it is possible that the rate used is an average amount based on a 15 week duration.

Whether this would ‘qualify’ as a compensation event at clause 60.4 is a separate matter, although if the BoQ states 15 weeks then it would probably not be an issue. This would, however, only consider the rate for the ‘difference’ and not the quantity assessed for payment purposes.