NEC4 ECC Clause 60.1 (8) in association with clause 61.4

In NEC4 ECC at clause 61.4, the PM notifies the Contractor that the Prices, Completion Date and the Key Dates are not to be changed where one of the stated bullet points applies to a Contractor’s CE notification. In NEC3 the PM previously ‘decided’ the matter but the test under NEC4 is now objective.

If a Contractor notifies a CE and the PM response is that one of the bullet points under 61.4 applies, does the Contractor have to re-notify the matter if it is ‘agreed’ to be a CE as the ‘changed decision’ CE at 60.1 (8) can no longer be used? Also, at what point would the ‘time bar’ time commence under 61.3?

It’s an interesting point and something that arises quite often at project level. In my experience where the Parties do eventually agree, this results in a new notification having to be raised against the same clause quoted initially, if only to satisfy the management software system, but it’s recognised that a time bar doesn’t apply because the matter was notified timeously in the first instance. Even though that’s not strictly correct.