The NEC4 short subcontract is the Engineering and Construction Short Subcontract (ECSS). A Contractor uses it to let a simple, low-risk package to a Subcontractor, and it follows the pattern of the short main contract, with the Contractor in the Client's position.
There is no separate administrator. The Contractor gives instructions, replies to quotations and assesses events itself. It is one of the less-documented NEC contract types, so reading your actual copy matters more than usual.
What it is used for
Good candidates are small, clearly defined trade packages: a fencing package, line marking, minor concrete repairs or a small plastering package. The NEC3 edition states that it can sit below either the ECC or the ECSC. If you are using the NEC4 edition under another form, check that your copy says the same and that no reference breaks.
It pairs naturally with the ECSC. It can also be a reasonable choice below an ECC when a package is minor, though the Contractor should think through how the upper-tier risks reach the Subcontractor.
How the main procedures work
| Topic | The NEC4 ECSS | Clause |
|---|---|---|
| Communications | Readable, and able to be copied and stored | 13.1 |
| Change | The Contractor instructs a change to the Scope | 14.2 |
| Price List mistakes | Corrected by instruction | 14.3 |
| Early warning | Each side warns, then they co-operate on a response. No register and no meetings | 15.1, 15.2 |
| Design | Work designed by the Subcontractor waits until the Contractor accepts the design | 20.2 |
| Programmes | Sent as the Scope says, with no acceptance step | 31.1 |
| Stopping work | By instruction | 30.4 |
| Applying for payment | Before each assessment day. If the application is late, the Contractor makes the assessment | 50.1 |
| Quotations | Accepted, or the Contractor disagrees and gives its assessment. No reply can mean treated acceptance | 62.2, 62.3 |
| Termination | A shorter set of reasons and procedures | 90.1, 91.1 |
The limits
The form deliberately leaves things out. Before you use it, make sure you don't need any of these:
- Key Dates. The form has none, so a package with strict intermediate milestones is awkward.
- An Accepted Programme. No programme is accepted or made contractual in the ECC's sense. Delay is simply how far the event is forecast to push Completion back (63.6).
- Secondary Options. There is no X7, X16 or X5 to select. If the Construction Act applies, its payment and suspension terms appear as numbered conditions (1.4 and 1.5).
- A final assessment procedure. Termination has its own closing assessment, but the ECC's final assessment isn't there.
- A register of risks. Warnings still have to be managed, but nothing in the form creates the record.
Compensation events
There are 12 events at 60.1. They have the same subjects and numbering as the ECSC list: Scope changes, access, late Contractor items, stop instructions, work outside the Scope's conditions, late replies, changed decisions, physical conditions, weather, corrected assumptions, unforeseeable events and Price List corrections. Suspension under the Construction Act is covered at 1.5.
Read each event with the Contractor in the paying position. If the problem really started with the Client, whether the Contractor can pass the effect up depends on what its own main contract says.
Watch the time limits
Do not borrow numbers from the ECSC. In the unamended NEC4 ECSS, you have three weeks to notify an event (61.3), against four in the ECSC, and one week to quote when instructed (61.2). The Contractor's reply period is a Subcontract Data entry (62.2), and payment follows within four weeks of the assessment day (51.1). Put your own contract's figures in your diary on day one.
A Subcontractor who has worked mainly under the full ECS should also check these rather than assume. The general idea of how a chain fits together is on the back-to-back subcontracts page.
A worked example
A fictional Contractor has an ECC for a depot and lets a small fencing package on the ECSS. In week three, its site team moves the fence line by instruction. Under 14.2 that is a change, and 60.1(1) makes it a compensation event. The Subcontractor sends a quotation for an illustrative £2,400 with its notification. The Contractor thinks £1,900 is right. It replies under 62.2, disagreeing and giving its own assessment, and pays that amount. The Contractor separately checks whether the change came from a Project Manager's instruction, in which case the upper-tier event should be notified too.
Related guides
- NEC Contract Types: Which Form Do You Need?
- NEC4 Professional Service Contract (PSC)
- NEC4 Professional Service Subcontract (PSS)
- NEC4 Professional Service Short Contract (PSSC)
- NEC4 Engineering and Construction Subcontract (ECS)
- NEC4 Engineering and Construction Short Contract (ECSC)
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This guide is general information in our own words, not legal advice. Your contract and its Contract Data always govern. NEC, NEC3 and NEC4 are trade marks of Thomas Telford Ltd; Contract Status is not affiliated with or endorsed by NEC.