Under Clause 61.3, (for CE’s that a time bar applies to) the Contractor is not entitled to compensation for an event that he did not notify within 8 weeks of “becoming aware” of the event.
Could it be argued by the Contractor that he didn’t become aware of the event until much later and that he did indeed notify within 8 weeks of becoming aware or is it simply a case of when the Contractor SHOULD reasonably have become aware?
I would agree that it would be when the Contractor should have become aware. The only issue to consider is who is the Contractor, that is the person within the organisation who needs to be aware of the occurence of the event.
Note that the 8 weeks commences when the event occurs, not when the event is a compensation event, which could be different. This might create a difficult timeline to consider for CE’s relating to physical conditions and weather but there is no penalty for notifying so err on the side of caution.