Compensation event received in December 19 to claim against July 19 schedule.
Is this allowed or can the claim only be assessed against the last accepted schedule, November 19?
The NEC3 ECC states you use the Accepted Programme [clause 63.3] which is a defined term that means the latest programme accepted by the PM [clause 11.2(1)]. There’s a good article on this subject here:
To overcome the NEC3 issues the NEC4 ECC states you use the Accepted Programme current at the dividing date [clause 63.5] and explains how you establish the dividing date [clause 63.1]. Check your contract carefully as NEC released an amendment in January 2019 which changes this clause to add further clarity.
The amendments to NEC4 2019 version finally put in words what I believe they always intended. You take the last Accepted Programme, but first bring it up to date with progress and other compensation events that had already happened prior to the new compensation event coming along (called the “dividing date” in NEC4). You prove where you were before the CE came along (or attempt to prove) and then see the extra over effect the new CE has genuinely had, if any, on planned Completion (or sectional/key dates).
The wording of NEC4 recognises that you cant put a new CE into a programme that is say four months old (last accepted) and expect to get a correct or fair result to either party.
This principle was always the intended one so for me still valid for NEC3, just made clearer in NEC4.