Webinar - NEC4 ECS Part 2/6: Roles and responsibilities of the Contractor and Subcontractor under the NEC4 Engineering and Construction Subcontract

This topic is for all questions raised on our webinar " Webinar - NEC4 ECS Part 2/6: Roles and responsibilities of the Contractor and Subcontractor under the NEC4 Engineering and Construction Subcontract ". If you haven’t already attended it, you can sign up here Webinar - NEC4 ECS Part 2/6: Roles and responsibilities of the Contrac | Built Intelligence

What’s it about

This training session provides a summary of the main roles and responsibilities of both the Contractor and Subcontractor under the NEC4 Engineering and Construction Subcontract (ECS). The session will take you through some of the general provisions, governing actions, identified and defined terms, communications, the role of the Contractor, early warning, the Subcontractor’s main responsibilities for Providing the Subcontract Works, the Subcontractor’s design obligations, key people and working with the Contractor and Others.

By completing this module delegates will have a much clearer understanding of the intent of the specific contractual clauses and in practical terms begin to see how they should administer them for the benefit of all parties on a particular project.

You will learn

By the end of this module you will:

  • Know how contract notices and communication work under the ECS.
  • Understand what an early warning is and how to manage them.
  • Understand what the key obligations of the Subcontractor are.
  • Know the role and responsibilities of the Contractor.
    @Neil_Earnshaw

If a EWN is raised and there is no risk reduction meeting and a then 3/4 months down the line the Subcontractors claims for additional cost from issues relating to in the EWN? Should the CE have been raised withi the 8 week period? and now the costs are assesses as if they told the contractor. @Neil_Earnshaw

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CE notification is time-barred in the NEC4 ECS but only in relation to certain events. Clause 61.3 requires the Subcontractor to notify CEs “within 7 weeks of becoming aware that the event has happened” however the important words which explain which events this applies to are “unless the event arises from the Contractor giving an instruction, or notification, issuing a certificate or changing an earlier decision.”

It sounds like the event may have happened 3 / 4 months ago and as such depending on what it is the Subcontractor may find that they are time-barred. If the event was related to an instruction, notification etc then the time-bar will not apply.

It is important to remember how procedural NEC4 is. Before you can get to addressing what the additional costs are (and any delay) you first need to establish that the event is a compensation event by the Subcontractor notifying under clause 61.3 and the Contractor making a decision under clause 61.4. Only if the decision is that the event is a compensation event do we then look at cost and time.