In an NEC4 contract, under clause 50.1 the Service Manager agrees the first assessment date with the parties, then the assessment interval is every month (or other period as stated in the Contract data) thereafter.
- Can the service manager once agreed with the Service provider change the date of subsequent assessments after this point?
- Can an agreed payment schedule be worked up that suits both parties and implemented without having to get a formal contract amendment signed off by directors or legal teams?
- If the dates had been changed informally and been worked to for a period of time, could interest technically be due as there is a high probability that due to changes from the original timeline, certs or payments may have been made late?
This is quite a subtle question. Yes, the SM decides the first assessment date and then does assessments no less frequently than the assessment interval.
What is your assessment interval? I’m after the exact entry here. There is no default to ‘monthly’ (assuming PSC or TSC, you don’t specify). If it is ‘monthly’ then provided there is a payment each month I think you are OK. You might use the last day of the month, or the last Friday, or whatever suits. The periods will likely vary in duration by a few days. If the assessment interval is an exact time period, such as 4 weeks, then the answer would change accordingly.
NEC does not require this but I strongly recommend working up a schedule of assessment dates that both parties agree to and that runs for several years. You can then take into account public holidays and so on.
Informal changes = problems.
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Just to add to Andy’s answer, it sounds like you are using the NEC4 Facilities Management Contract with a Service Manager and Service Provider, although the payment mechanism is virtually the same as the TSC form.