NEC ECC: Correcting a defect - cost if licences are required after Completion

If additional licences/consents are required to correct a defect after the completion date,and these licences/consents incur a cost, is it the Contractor or the Employer who needs to organise/pay for them?

If you are under a Main Option A or B then there is no involvement with the payment of correcting Defects, as the Project Manager will only be interested in whether an activity or BoQ item is complete, that is without Defects, certifying payment accordingly.

Under a Main Option C or D, the correcting of Defects after Completion is a defined disallowed cost bullet point under 11.2 (25), so any associated payments would be disallowed from a subsequent payment assessment.

Andrew (below) is absolutely right if additional licences are a ‘Defect’ with a capital 'D".

If, however, the Employer/Client wants additional licences to that specified in the original Works Information/Scope, then this would be a compensation event.

To answer you question very specifically (and lets use option A as the example). If the Contractor is correcting a defect but the Employer in Works Info is due to provide traffic management, or licences, unless there are specific words elsewhere I see no where that entitles the Employer to recover that cost from the Contractor- fair or unfair.

So under an Option A, if a licence was obtained for the works IE an MMO licence for working over a harbour. A defect is raised, and the contractor proposes coming back during the defect period to correct defects and a new licence is required, it is the employer who organises and pays for the licence that the contractor needs to correct the defect.

It would depend on wording in Works Information but contractually I would say yes this would be an Employer cost if there is no where in the contract/Works Information that says they can recover it. The Works Information wording might say that they arrange licences but may be the wording could subjectively imply only up until Completion.

I would be careful with this though. The Employer will be pretty aggrieved at picking up a cost that they shouldn’t need to - and even if that is contractually correct they will try to recover that cost back somehow I suggest by legitimate or subjective means elsewhere. As a Contractor I would always say you might win a battle with a Client but never normally the war!