NEC ECS: Assessing and accepting NCE's

NEC3 and NEC4 Contracts Compensation Events
1

The Sub-Contractor submits NCE’s which aren’t responded to within the timescales stated within the contract.

Whilst I am aware that the contract has the wording ‘may’ in clause 61.4 … ‘the Sub-Contractor may notify…’ I believe the Sub-Contractor isn’t obliged to notify the Contractor that they have not notified a decision with regards to the NCE.

Does this therefore mean that the NCE is now deemed accepted i.e. it is a Compensation Event and needs to be assessed?

If so and without the Contractor’s instruction, the Sub-Contractor then submits quotations (attached them to the NCE) but again the Contractor had not notified them of their assessment within the time period, are the quotations also deemed accepted?

I would like to think the events should / can be treated separately i.e. whilst the NCE may now be deemed a CE, it does not necessarily mean the associated quote is also accepted? And therefore discussions can now be had to determine the cost (if any) of the CE?

2

The reason for the word “may” is so that they are not obligated to and then there would be remedy against them for not doing something they are obligated to do (which in this case is notifying a Contractor failure). However for the deemed acceptance to ever apply they need to have notified the lack of response - otherwise it will never be deemed accepted.

If there has been no such reminder here then there is no deemed acceptance. It has to be ascertained if it is a compensation event before a quotation can be submitted.