NEC Early Warnings: The Complete Guide

An NEC early warning is a formal notice that something could raise the total of the Prices, hold up Completion or a Key Date, or harm how the finished works perform. The Project Manager and the Contractor each owe it to the other the moment they learn of the matter, so that both have time to act while the problem is still small and cheap to solve.

The rule sits in clause 15 of the NEC4 Engineering and Construction Contract (ECC) and clause 16 of NEC3. It is a management tool rather than a claims tool: a warning does not ask for money or time, nobody accepts or rejects it, and it does not replace notice of a compensation event. This guide covers the whole process and points to a detailed page on each part. Clause numbers are NEC4 ECC unless stated.

The process from warning to decision

Someone spots a risk. Either the Project Manager or the Contractor becomes aware of a matter that could have one of the listed effects. It need only be possible, not certain or fully costed (15.1).
They notify the other side. The notice goes on its own rather than inside another message (13.7), and it needs to be readable, copyable and recordable (13.1).
The Project Manager enters it in the Early Warning Register (15.1). The first register, issued within one week of the starting date, also holds the matters listed in the Contract Data (15.2).
The parties meet. Either can call an early warning meeting at any time by instructing the other to attend, and meetings also take place at least as often as the Contract Data requires, right up to Completion of the whole of the works (15.2).
The meeting decides. Those attending work through ways to avoid or reduce each matter, agree who does what, review earlier actions and decide what can come off the register (15.3).
The Project Manager issues the revised register within one week of the meeting, and instructs any change to the Scope that a decision needs at the same time (15.4).
Actions are carried out. An instructed change to the Scope is normally a compensation event under 60.1(1), and is notified and assessed in the usual way.

What triggers the duty

There are four mandatory triggers and one optional one. The four concern the project as a whole; the fifth protects the Contractor's own position.

Possible effect of the matter	Required?	Simple example
A rise in the total of the Prices	Yes, both sides	A diversion the Scope does not show may be needed
Later Completion	Yes, both sides	A consent needed for a critical activity looks likely to come late
Missing a Key Date	Yes, both sides	A handover to another contractor's work is at risk
Poorer performance of the works in use	Yes, both sides	A substituted pump may not meet the duty the operator relies on
A rise in the Contractor's own total cost	Optional, Contractor	A supplier signals a price increase on a fixed-price item

One exception saves paperwork: a matter already notified as a compensation event does not also need a warning. For more cases, including examples by sector, see what should be early warned.

NEC4 and NEC3 compared

The duty is much the same in both editions. NEC4 changes the names and, more importantly, adds timescales that NEC3 leaves open.

Topic	NEC3 ECC	NEC4 ECC
Clause	16	15
Register	Risk Register	Early Warning Register
Meeting	Risk reduction meeting	Early warning meeting
First register	No fixed time	Within one week of the starting date
First meeting	No fixed time	Within two weeks of the starting date
Later meetings	When either side instructs one	When either side instructs one, and at the Contract Data interval at most
Revised register	After each meeting, no fixed time	Within one week of each meeting
Assessing an event where a warning was missed	61.5 and 63.5	61.5 and 63.7

The clause numbers are a trap when moving between editions. NEC3 clause 15 deals with additions to the Working Areas, and NEC4 clause 16 deals with the Contractor's proposals to change the Scope. The NEC4 early warning changes are set out in more detail in the NEC4 section, along with the older NEC3 Risk Register.

Why it matters commercially

The contract gives the duty financial teeth, and they bite on the Contractor. If the Project Manager decides that an experienced contractor could have warned of an event and did not, it says so in its instruction to submit quotations (61.5). The event is then assessed as if the warning had been given (63.7). The Contractor carries the difference between that assessment and what actually happened.

On the cost-based Options there is a second exposure. Under Options C, D and E, cost incurred only because the Contractor did not give a warning the contract required is Disallowed Cost. The contract sets no matching price reduction for a Project Manager who stays silent, but the duty in 15.1 binds the Project Manager too, and the obligation of mutual trust and co-operation in 10.2 applies throughout.

Here is how a warning pays for itself on a fictional highways scheme, using illustrative figures:

Illustrative example. A Contractor's engineer sees old records suggesting that a gas main may run through the line of a new retaining wall. She issues a warning the same day. At the next meeting, the parties decide on trial holes and a possible wall redesign, and the Project Manager instructs the Scope change with the revised register. The compensation event comes to £12,000 and no delay. Had the main been found during piling, the estimate is £60,000 and three weeks. If the Contractor knew and stayed silent, the event could be assessed at something near the lower figure, with the rest left for the Contractor to bear.

Early warnings and compensation events are separate

This is the most expensive misunderstanding in the whole process. A warning says that something might happen. A compensation event notice says that a listed event has happened or is expected, and it starts the route to changed Prices and dates.

The Contractor's limit for notifying a compensation event is eight weeks from becoming aware of it under the NEC3 and NEC4 ECC (61.3), subject to the exception for events arising from certain Project Manager or Supervisor actions. Giving an early warning does not stop that time running. Where both apply, issue both, as explained in early warnings and compensation events.

Early warnings in other NEC contracts

Numbers and machinery change across the suite, so check the form you are actually using. The short contracts keep the duty to warn and to co-operate on a response, but do not have a register or formal meetings.

Contract	NEC4 clause	NEC3 clause	Register and meetings?
Engineering and Construction Contract	15	16	Yes
Engineering and Construction Subcontract	15	16	Yes, run by the Contractor
Engineering and Construction Short Contract	15	16	No
Engineering and Construction Short Subcontract	15	16	No
Professional Service Contract	15	15	Yes
Professional Service Short Contract	15	14	No
Term Service Contract	15	16	Yes

The triggers differ as well. The professional service forms, for example, ask whether the service stays useful to the client and whether others' work is disrupted, rather than how built works perform in use. Read the list in your own form rather than assuming the ECC list applies.

The guides in this section

The basics

What is an early warning under NEC? explains the purpose of the duty and how it differs from a claim or a compensation event.
NEC clause 15 explained takes the NEC4 clause sub-clause by sub-clause, with the NEC3 equivalents beside it.
Who gives an early warning? sets out the duties of the Project Manager and Contractor, and where the Supervisor, Client and designers fit.
What should be early warned? tests real-world situations against the triggers, with examples from highways, rail, water and buildings.

Notices

How to write an early warning notice covers what to include and compares weak notices with useful ones.
The early warning notice template gives you our own sample wording to copy, with a completed example.

The register and meetings

The Early Warning Register explains what the contract requires it to hold and how to keep it useful.
The early warning register template sets out each column to use, separating contract requirements from good practice.
Running an early warning meeting gives an agenda, advice on frequency and the outputs to leave with.

When things go wrong, and down the chain

What happens if no early warning is given? works through the cost effect, with an illustrative assessment.
Common early warning mistakes looks at both over-use and under-use, and how to fix each.
Early warnings for subcontractors follows a notice up and down the contract chain, including the shorter subcontract periods.

For how this section fits with the rest of the contract, start from the NEC contracts guide.

All guides in this section

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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.