NEC ECC Option E: De-scope of work and dead time due to Access

NEC3 and NEC4 Contracts
1

Scenario:

Contractor A’s scope of work in Area 1 is due to be complete in March.

Commencing works in Area 2 (planned for March) is driven by Contractor A’s receipt of key design information by Contractor B (another of the Employers Contractors). As a result of a delay to the availability of this design information by Contractor B, the Project Manager is exploring the option of transferring Contractor A’s scope (in Area 2 only) to Contractor B so to not extend Contractor A’s planned completion.

Contractor A’s access to Area 3 is not planned until June, accordingly, if the Project Manager pursues this scope transfer of works for Area 2, there will be a 2-3 month gap whereby no works can be carried out by Contractor A until Area 3 is available.

Under an NEC Option E ECC, what is the extent of the saving the Employer would expect ? Can the Employer expect a reduction in prelims ? What is (if anything) recoverable by the Contractor ?

2

Under option E a Contractor can only claim the costs that they are incurring. If you add work or take work away they should do so as efficiently as possible knowing that disallowed costs could be incurred if they incur a cost that could have been avoided.

This is the very nature of option E. The Contractor has no certainty of the amount of work they will be instructed to do. All they cam claim is their fixed fee for any work they do.