NEC4 ECC Clause 61.3: The 8-Week CE Notification Rule

Under NEC4 clause 61.3, if the Contractor does not notify a compensation event within eight weeks of becoming aware that it has happened, the Prices, the Completion Date and the Key Dates are not changed.

Eight weeks. Not eight weeks from when the event started. Eight weeks from when you became aware of it. That distinction has cost contractors significant sums on UK infrastructure projects.

What clause 61.3 actually says

The Contractor notifies the Project Manager of an event which has happened, or which it expects to happen, if the Contractor believes it is a compensation event and the Project Manager has not already notified it. The notification must be made within eight weeks of the Contractor becoming aware that the event has happened.

If the Contractor does not notify within eight weeks, the Prices, the Completion Date and the Key Dates are not changed.

There is one important exception. The time bar does not apply where the event arises from the Project Manager or the Supervisor giving an instruction or notification, issuing a certificate, or changing an earlier decision. Those are events the Project Manager should have notified under clause 61.1. Notify them anyway — but a late notification of a Project Manager's instruction does not lose you the event.

For everything else — physical conditions, access, weather, the Client's or Others' failings — there is no discretion. Miss the eight weeks and the entitlement is gone.

Check the Z clauses too. Some contracts amend clause 61.3, and a few shorten the period.

What counts as becoming aware

This is where disputes arise. The Contractor's commercial team may argue they became aware when the full impact was clear. The Project Manager may argue the Contractor should have been aware earlier — when the physical condition was first encountered, when the drawing was first issued, when the programme first showed the impact.

The safest approach is to notify early. A notification that turns out not to be a compensation event costs nothing. A missed notification can cost the entire value of the event.

What the notification must contain

The notification describes the event. It does not need a quotation, and it does not need a cost.

Clause 61.3 does not strictly require you to name the clause 60.1 ground, but you should — it tells the Project Manager exactly what you are claiming and avoids a reply asking.

The notification starts the clock on the Project Manager's reply. Under clause 61.4 the Project Manager replies within one week (or a longer period if agreed) — either notifying that the event is a compensation event and instructing the Contractor to submit quotations, or notifying that it is not, with reasons.

If the Project Manager does not reply within one week, the Contractor may notify the Project Manager of that failure. If the failure continues for a further two weeks, it is treated as acceptance that the event is a compensation event and an instruction to submit quotations.

The most common compensation events on civils jobs

On civil engineering and drainage projects the events you will notify most often are:

Clause 60.1(1) — the Project Manager gives an instruction changing the Scope. The most common. An instruction to change line, level or materials is a compensation event. The Project Manager should notify it when giving the instruction; if they do not, notify it yourself straight away.

Clause 60.1(2) — the Client does not allow access. If the Client does not allow access to and use of a part of the Site by the later of its access date and the date shown on the Accepted Programme, that is a compensation event. Notify as soon as access is delayed.

Clause 60.1(4) — the Project Manager instructs you to stop or not to start work. A stop instruction is a compensation event. Notify the same day it is given.

Clause 60.1(12) — physical conditions an experienced contractor would not have allowed for. Groundwater at a level not shown in the GI report, an uncharted service, unexpected ground conditions. The test is whether, at the Contract Date, an experienced contractor would have judged the condition to have such a small chance of occurring that it would have been unreasonable to allow for it. The clock starts when the condition is encountered — not when its full extent is understood.

Running a CE register

On any NEC4 project the Contractor should keep a CE register tracking every potential event: the date first aware, the eight-week deadline, the date notified, and the Project Manager's reply.

A CE that is not in the register is a CE that will be missed.

The eight-week clock runs whether or not the register is up to date.

The notification letter

A clause 61.3 notification is a formal contract communication. It must be in a form that can be read, copied and recorded (clause 13.1), and it must be sent using the communication system stated in the Scope (clause 13.2) — if the Scope names a system such as a project portal, use it. Notifications must also be sent separately from other communications (clause 13.7): do not bury one in a progress report or meeting minutes. A verbal notification is not a notification.

The letter should state clearly: the project, the contract reference, the date of notification, a description of the event, the date you became aware of it, and the compensation event clause you believe applies.

Keep it factual. Do not quantify the cost at notification stage. That comes with your quotation under clause 62.