The PM Has Not Replied to Our Compensation Event Notice

Notify the failure. If the PM gives no reply to your compensation event notice in the time allowed, clause 61.4 lets you tell them so, and if the failure continues, the event is treated as accepted and quotations are treated as instructed.

It depends only on the dates, and on which form you're using. Nothing happens from silence on its own: without your notice, it isn't treated as accepted however long the silence lasts. This is one of the NEC questions where a short letter is worth a great deal.

The dates by form

Z clauses often change these. Read your own amendments before you send anything, as a wrong date undermines the notice.

Steps

1. Check for an agreed extension. Search for any written agreement to a longer period before you treat the reply as overdue.
2. Check that your notification went through the right route. Under NEC4 13.2, if the Scope names a communication system, use it.
3. On the day after the reply was due, notify the failure. Send it as a separate notice (13.7), naming the original notification and its date, and citing 61.4.
4. Diary the further period. Count from your failure notice.
5. Prepare your quotation now. Once the period ends, you're treated as instructed to quote, and the time for quotations under 62.3 runs. That's three weeks under the ECC, two under the NEC4 subcontract.
6. Record the outcome. On the first day after the period, write to confirm the event is treated as accepted, and give the date your quotation is due.

Sample notice

A fictional timeline

What you've won, and what you haven't

• You have: a compensation event, and the right to quote. The argument about whether it's an event should be over, subject to the dispute route.
• You don't have: a sum or a date. The amount is still to be agreed. The Project Manager can reject your quotation and make its own assessment.
• Also separate: 60.1(6) makes a missed reply an event in its own right, but since the failure route needs no proof of effect, it's usually the one to use. See late replies.

The likely response

A common one is a reply sent during the further two weeks. If that says "not a compensation event, for these reasons", the route ends and you go to challenging the refusal. Other replies may be holding letters: "We are considering this." That isn't one of the answers 61.4 provides for, so you have a good argument that the failure has continued, though you should expect a debate.

After the period ends, a Project Manager or Client may say the event wasn't valid anyway. Under the NEC4 subcontract W1 table, something treated as accepted can be referred by the paying side within four weeks. Under W2, adjudication can start at any time. Keep a clean record, and see time limits for disputes.

In practice, a polite phone call first often produces a proper answer, and it costs nothing. But don't let a call replace the notice: the further period counts only from the notice itself. For how the same mechanism applies elsewhere, see clause 61.4.

Related guides

• NEC Questions Answered: Real Situations on Site
• The PM Has Not Replied to Our Quotation
• The PM Rejected Our Compensation Event Without Reasons
• The PM's Assessment of Our Compensation Event Is Too Low
• The PM Should Have Notified It: Does the Time Bar Still Apply?
• Can We Notify a Compensation Event Before It Happens?

How this looks in Contract Status

A late reply in Contract Status: the banner, the clause and the button for the notice. See the worked example.

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.