I am new to NEC3 ECSC (short form) and I am negotiating several new packages where this will be used for fast paced small projects.
Firstly, the wording of ECSC appears to refer to lump sum or remeasurable pricing only - is there any way ECSC can be used with Option E/Cost Reimbursable basis and can you use any standard secondary X options?
Also, if lump sum is used, the Contract only requires a fee % to be stated as an OH&P uplft to the Defined Cost of people and to other Defined Cost - if there is no Schedule/Shorter Schedule of Cost Components and CEs are stated as an assessment of change to Defined Cost how can you assess agree what is included in the Defined Cost to prevent disagreements over cost of CEs?
The definition of Defined Cost in the ECSC is brief by comparison to the ECC as it would only be used for assessing compensation events, which by definition will be low risk, low value items in the context of an ECSC.
If you are wanting to engage a Contractor on a cost reimbursable basis then you will have to use the ECC as the ECSC does not contain any main or secondary options. It provides only a simple pricing mechanism for use on simple, low risk, low value projects.
Due to the brevity of the definition of Defined Cost it is likely to cause some issues around interpretation of what is and isn’t paid for. If you are looking for a daywork style time and materials contract it would be technically possible to do this under the ECSC however you would need to amend the standard form of contract in order to make it work.