NEC4 TSC clause index
138 references from the NEC4 Term Service Contract, grouped by topic. These are our own plain words, not the contract's wording, so keep your own copy to hand.
General rules and communications
| Clause | In plain English |
|---|---|
| 13.1 | Every communication the contract calls for must be readable, and able to be copied and kept on record. Guide |
| 13.3 | Where the contract asks for an answer, it is given within the period for reply unless the contract says otherwise. Guide |
| 13.4 | The Service Manager answers anything sent for acceptance: it accepts it, or explains why not in enough detail for the Contractor to put it right and send it again. Guide |
| 13.5 | The period for reply to a communication can be extended only if both agree before the reply is due. Guide |
| X23.1 | (Option X23) The contract can be extended by the periods in the Contract Data where the stated criteria are met; the Service Manager notifies each extension Guide |
| X29.4 | (Option X29) The Contractor sends its climate change plan for acceptance, and revised plans as the contract requires Guide |
Instructions
| Clause | In plain English |
|---|---|
| 14.3 | An instruction that alters the Affected Property, a Task or the Scope Guide |
| 14.5 | An instruction correcting a mistake in the Price List Guide |
| 15.2 | An instruction to attend an early warning meeting Guide |
| 16.2 | An instruction changing the Scope after accepting a proposal from the Contractor to reduce what the Client pays Guide |
| 17.1 | An instruction saying how an ambiguity or inconsistency between the documents is to be resolved Guide |
| 17.2 | An instruction changing the Scope because it asks for something illegal or impossible Guide |
| 19.1 | A Task Order: an instruction to carry out a Task, describing the work and giving its dates (and any delay damages) Guide |
| 19.1 | An instruction to send a quotation for a Task before its Task Order is issued Guide |
| 21.1 | An instruction to send the design of an item of Equipment for acceptance Guide |
| 22.2 | An instruction to remove a person from work on the service Guide |
| 32.2 | An instruction to send a revised plan Guide |
| 36.1 | An instruction to stop work or not to start it Guide |
| 36.1 | An instruction that stopped work may restart or start, or that it is taken out of the Scope Guide |
| 40.3 | An instruction to put right a failure to follow the quality plan Guide |
| 44.2 | An instruction accepting a Defect instead of having it corrected, with the change to the Scope and the Prices Guide |
| 62.1 | An instruction to send alternative quotations for a compensation event Guide |
| 92.2 | An instruction on termination to leave the Service Areas, take away Equipment, and pass over the benefit of subcontracts Guide |
Early warnings
| Clause | In plain English |
|---|---|
| 15.1 | A rise in the total of the Prices Guide |
| 15.1 | Disruption to when the service is carried out Guide |
| 15.1 | The service becoming less effective Guide |
| 15.1 | A rise in the Contractor's own total cost (a warning the Contractor may give) Guide |
| 15.1 | Either side warns the other as soon as it knows of something that could raise the total of the Prices, disrupt when the service is carried out or make it less effective. The Service Manager puts each one on the Early Warning Register. Guide |
| 15.3 | An early warning meeting looks for ways to avoid or reduce the registered matters, agrees who does what about them, and decides which have been dealt with or have passed and can come off the Register. Guide |
| 15.4 | After each early warning meeting the Service Manager updates the Early Warning Register with the decisions taken and sends it to the Contractor, with an instruction for any change to the Scope those decisions need. Guide |
Submissions for acceptance
| Clause | In plain English |
|---|---|
| 21.1 | When the Service Manager instructs it, the Contractor sends the design of an item of Equipment for acceptance. Guide |
| 21.1 | With the item as designed, the service could not be provided as the Scope requires Guide |
| 21.1 | With the item as designed, the service could not be provided in line with the Accepted Plan Guide |
| 21.1 | With the item as designed, the service could not be provided within the applicable law Guide |
| 22.1 | The Contractor proposes someone to replace a key person named in the Contract Data, with their name, relevant qualifications and experience, for acceptance. Guide |
| 22.1 | The proposed person is less qualified or experienced for the job than the key person they replace Guide |
| 24.2 | The Contractor sends the name of each firm it proposes to subcontract work to, for acceptance before it appoints them. Guide |
| 24.2 | Appointing them would stop the Contractor providing the service Guide |
| 24.3 | The Contractor sends the documents it proposes for each of its subcontracts for acceptance. This is not needed for an NEC form used without changes, or where the Service Manager has agreed to do without it. Guide |
| 24.3 | The documents would stop the Contractor providing the service Guide |
| 24.3 | The documents leave out a statement that the parties will work together in mutual trust and co-operation Guide |
| 40.2 | Within the period in the Contract Data, the Contractor gives the Service Manager its quality policy statement and quality plan for acceptance, and any changed quality plan later. Guide |
| 40.2 | The quality policy statement or quality plan would not let the Contractor provide the service Guide |
| 84.1 | Before the starting date and at each renewal, the Contractor sends certificates, signed by its insurer or broker, showing the insurance the contract requires is in force, for acceptance. Guide |
| 84.1 | The insurance does not meet what the contract requires Guide |
Programme
| Clause | In plain English |
|---|---|
| 31.1 | Unless the Contract Data already identifies a plan, the Contractor sends its first plan for the Service Manager to accept, within the period the Contract Data sets. Guide |
| 31.2 | A plan sent for acceptance is in the form the Scope asks for. Among other things it shows each Task (its starting date, planned completion and Task Completion Date), when the Contractor needs access, the work of the Client and others that it depends on, the resources it means to use, and the progress made. Guide |
| 31.3 | The Service Manager answers a plan sent for acceptance within the period allowed, either accepting it or explaining why not. Guide |
| 31.3 | The Service Manager accepts the plan. Guide |
| 31.3 | The Service Manager rejects the plan for one of the reasons the contract allows: what it shows cannot be done in practice, it leaves out required information, it does not give a realistic picture of how the Contractor means to work, or it conflicts with the Scope. Guide |
| 31.3 | If the Service Manager neither accepts nor rejects a plan in time, the Contractor may notify that failure. If there is still no answer in the further time the contract allows, the plan counts as accepted. Guide |
| 32.1 | A revised plan records the progress made and how it affects the rest of the service, how the Contractor will deal with any delays, and any other changes it wants to make. Guide |
| 32.2 | The Contractor sends a revised plan for acceptance when instructed, whenever it chooses, and at least as often as the Contract Data requires. Guide |
Tests and inspections
| Clause | In plain English |
|---|---|
| 41.1 | The Scope and the law set out which tests and inspections are done, and the Scope says who does each one. Guide |
| 41.2 | The Client (and the Contractor, where the Scope says so) provides what tests and inspections need: the materials, facilities and samples the Scope sets out. Guide |
| 41.3 | Each side tells the other before it starts each of its tests or inspections. The Contractor warns early enough for the test or inspection to be set up and carried out before any work that would cover it up. Guide |
| 41.3 | Each side tells the other the results of each of its tests and inspections. Guide |
| 41.3 | The Service Manager may watch any test the Contractor does. Guide |
| 41.4 | If a test or inspection shows a Defect, the Contractor corrects it and the test or inspection is done again. Guide |
| 41.5 | The Service Manager carries out its tests and inspections without holding up the work, or a payment that depends on a test passing, more than it needs to. Guide |
| 41.6 | When a test or inspection has to be done again because it found a Defect, the Service Manager assesses what the repeat cost the Client, and the Contractor pays that. Guide |
| 42.1 | Plant and Materials that the Scope says are tested or inspected before delivery are not delivered until the Contractor has been told that they passed. Guide |
Defects
| Clause | In plain English |
|---|---|
| 43.1 | Each side tells the other of every Defect it finds, straight away. Guide |
| 43.3 | The Contractor puts right a notified Defect quickly enough to keep the harm to the Client and others as small as possible. Guide |
| 43.3 | If the Contractor had access but left a notified Defect uncorrected in the time required, the Service Manager assesses what it costs the Client to have others correct it, and the Contractor pays that. Guide |
Payment
| Clause | In plain English |
|---|---|
| 50.1 | The amount due is assessed by the Service Manager on each assessment date: the Service Manager sets the first, and the rest follow at the interval the Contract Data gives. Guide |
| 50.2 | Before each assessment date the Contractor sends the Service Manager an application for payment, in the form the Scope sets, showing the amount it considers due and how it was worked out. Guide |
| 50.5 | If the Contract Data identifies no plan, the Service Manager holds back a quarter of each assessment's Price for Service Provided to Date until the Contractor sends a first plan for acceptance with all the information the contract requires. Guide |
| 51.1 | The Service Manager certifies a payment within the time allowed after each assessment date, showing how the amount was assessed. Guide |
| 51.2 | Each certified payment falls due by whichever is later of two dates the contract sets: one counted from receipt of the invoice, one from the assessment date. A late payment carries interest. Guide |
| 51.3 | An amount corrected in a later certificate carries interest. Guide |
| X24.1 | (Option X24) The Service Manager assesses the amount due for each accounting period once it has ended Guide |
| Y2.2 | (Option Y(UK)2) The contract fixes when each payment (and the final payment) falls due and its final date for payment; the Service Manager's certificate is the payment notice, giving the sum due and how it was worked out Guide |
| Y2.3 | (Option Y(UK)2) To pay less than the notified sum, a Party gives notice of the sum it considers due, and the basis for it, no later than the prescribed period (seven days) ahead of the final date for payment. Guide |
Final assessment
| Clause | In plain English |
|---|---|
| 53.1 | The Service Manager assesses the final amount due, and certifies any final payment, within the time the contract allows once the Service Period has ended (or after a termination certificate). Guide |
| 53.2 | If the Service Manager does not make the final assessment in time, the Contractor may work out the final amount due itself and send that, with the details. Guide |
| 53.3 | The final assessment becomes conclusive unless a Party refers a dispute about it within the time the contract allows. Guide |
Termination
| Clause | In plain English |
|---|---|
| 53.1 | After a termination certificate the final amount due is assessed within the stated time, as the final assessment. Guide |
| 90.1 | To terminate, a Party tells the other Party and the Service Manager, giving its reason. Guide |
| 90.1 | The Service Manager certifies termination to both Parties promptly when the reason given is one the contract allows. Guide |
| 91.2 | If the Contractor does not put right in time a default the Service Manager notified, the Client may terminate. Guide |
| 91.3 | If the Contractor does not stop in time a default it was told of, the Client may terminate. Guide |
| 91.4 | An amount due left unpaid for the stated weeks after it should have been paid lets the Contractor terminate. Guide |
| 92.1 | What happens on termination: the Client may finish the service, and the other procedures the Termination Table names for the reason. Guide |
| 93.1 | What the amount due on termination is made up of, with the items the Termination Table adds or takes off for the reason. Guide |
Compensation events
| Clause | In plain English |
|---|---|
| 60.1(1) | By instruction, the Service Manager changes the Scope, alters a Task, or alters the Affected Property (except in the cases the contract excludes) Guide |
| 60.1(2) | Access to the Affected Property is not given as the contract requires Guide |
| 60.1(3) | Something the Client has to provide is not provided by the date it is due Guide |
| 60.1(4) | A Task Order reaches the Contractor later than the starting date it gives Guide |
| 60.1(5) | The Service Manager instructs that work stops or does not start Guide |
| 60.1(6) | The Client or Others fail to keep to the timing on the Accepted Plan or an accepted Task Order programme, or to the conditions the Scope sets Guide |
| 60.1(7) | A communication from the Contractor gets no reply from the Service Manager in the time the contract sets Guide |
| 60.1(8) | The Service Manager goes back on a decision already given to the Contractor Guide |
| 60.1(9) | The Service Manager withholds an acceptance for a reason the contract does not give Guide |
| 60.1(10) | A test or inspection by the Service Manager holds work up unnecessarily Guide |
| 60.1(11) | A change to the Affected Property Guide |
| 60.1(12) | An event that the contract's conditions list among the Client's liabilities Guide |
| 60.1(13) | The Client fails to supply the materials, facilities or samples for testing that the Scope says it will Guide |
| 60.1(14) | The Service Manager corrects an assumption it gave about a compensation event Guide |
| 60.1(15) | Any other breach of contract by the Client that no other compensation event covers Guide |
| 60.1(16) | The Service Manager instructs that a mistake in the Price List is corrected Guide |
| 60.1(17) | The Service Manager turns down the Contractor's quotation for a proposed instruction, or says a Task will not be instructed Guide |
| 60.1(18) | An extra compensation event that the Contract Data lists happens Guide |
| 60.2 | (Main Options A and C) The final quantity of an item in the Price List differs from the quantity it gives, in the cases the contract sets out Guide |
| 61.1 | When the Service Manager gives an instruction or changes a decision that gives rise to a compensation event, it notifies the event to the Contractor at that same time. Guide |
| 61.2 | Along with the notification, the Service Manager asks the Contractor for quotations, unless the event is the Contractor's fault or quotations are already in. Guide |
| 61.3 | The Contractor notifies an event it believes is a compensation event that the Service Manager has not notified. If it is late (outside the time the contract allows after the Contractor became aware of it), the Prices and Task Completion Dates do not change, unless the event came from an instruction, certificate, changed decision or corrected assumption of the Service Manager. Guide |
| 61.4 | The Service Manager answers a compensation event the Contractor has notified within the time allowed: either nothing changes, or the Contractor is to send quotations. Guide |
| 61.4 | This is a compensation event, and the Contractor is to send quotations. Guide |
| 61.4 | The Prices and Task Completion Dates stay as they are: the event is the Contractor's fault, or it has not occurred and is not expected to, or it was notified too late, or it does not affect Defined Cost or when a Task is completed, or the contract does not list it as a compensation event. Guide |
| 61.4 | If the Service Manager gives no answer, the Contractor may notify that failure. If there is still no answer in the time the contract allows, the event counts as a compensation event and quotations count as instructed. Guide |
| X2.1 | (Option X2) A change in the law that takes effect after the Contract Date Guide |
| X12.3(6) | (Option X12) The Core Group changes the Partnering Information by instruction Guide |
| X12.3(7) | (Option X12) The Contractor changes its plan to follow the Core Group's revised timetable Guide |
| Y2.5 | (Option Y(UK)2) The Contractor suspends performance as the Construction Act allows Guide |
Replies and assessments
| Clause | In plain English |
|---|---|
| 61.6 | Where the effects are too uncertain to forecast, the Service Manager sets assumptions for the quotations, and notifies a correction if one turns out wrong. Guide |
| 63.2 | For an event that does more than alter quantities priced in the Price List, the Prices change by the effect on what the work before the dividing date actually cost (Defined Cost), what the work after it is forecast to cost, and the resulting Fee. That date is the day of the instruction or changed decision behind the event; for any other event, the day it was notified. Guide |
| 63.6 | The delay to a Task Completion Date is how much later the event makes planned completion of the Task, compared with the Task Order programme that was current at the dividing date. Guide |
| 64.1 | The Service Manager assesses a compensation event itself if the Contractor has not quoted in time, has assessed it wrongly and no revised quotation is asked for, or has not sent a plan, or a Task Order programme for an affected Task, that the contract requires, or had it turned down for a reason the contract gives. Guide |
| 64.2 | With no Accepted Plan, or no accepted Task Order programme where one is needed, the Service Manager assesses the event against its own view of the plan, or programme, for the work still to do. Guide |
| 64.3 | The Service Manager gives its assessment, with the details, within the time the Contractor would have had to quote, counted from when the need for it became clear. Guide |
| 64.4 | If the Service Manager does not assess in time, the Contractor may notify that failure. If there is still no answer in the time the contract allows, the Contractor's quotation counts as accepted. Guide |
| 66.1 | A compensation event is implemented once the Service Manager accepts the quotation, notifies its own assessment, or a quotation counts as accepted. Guide |
| 66.3 | Once implemented, a compensation event's assessment stays as it is, except where the contract allows a change. Guide |
Quotations
| Clause | In plain English |
|---|---|
| 62.2 | Each quotation sets out how much the Prices should change and any delay the event causes to a Task Completion Date, with the working behind it and any changes needed to the Accepted Plan or to a Task Order programme. Guide |
| 62.3 | The Contractor sends quotations within the time allowed after being asked for them. Guide |
| 62.3 | The Service Manager answers a quotation within the time allowed: an instruction to send a revised quotation, an acceptance, or notice that it will make its own assessment. Guide |
| 62.3 | The quotation is accepted. Guide |
| 62.3 | The Contractor is to send a revised quotation. Guide |
| 62.3 | The Service Manager will make its own assessment. Guide |
| 62.4 | A revised quotation can be asked for only once the reasons have been explained; the Contractor sends it within the time allowed. Guide |
| 62.5 | The time to send a quotation, or to answer one, can be extended only if both agree before it runs out. Guide |
| 62.6 | If the Service Manager does not answer a quotation in time, the Contractor may notify that failure. If there is still no answer in the time the contract allows, the quotation counts as accepted. Guide |
Proposed instructions
| Clause | In plain English |
|---|---|
| 65.1 | The Service Manager may ask for a quotation for an instruction it is only proposing, saying by when it may give it; the Contractor does not act on it unless it is given. Guide |
| 65.2 | The Service Manager answers the quotation by the date it may give the instruction: an instruction to send a revised quotation, the instruction itself with the quotation accepted, or notice that the quotation is not accepted. Guide |
| 65.2 | The instruction is given, as a compensation event, and the quotation is accepted. Guide |
| 65.2 | A revised quotation is asked for, with the reasons. Guide |
| 65.2 | The quotation is not accepted. Guide |
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General information in our own words, not legal advice. Your own contract, its Contract Data and any Z clauses decide.