This NEC guidance notes section aims to provide a useful resource at all levels for those involved in projects under the NEC form of contract.
I would highly encourage everyone to read through the relevant sections to hopefully clarify and provide practical tips as to how a clause should be interpreted and administered. It covers advice for both NEC3 and NEC4 versions of the contract, although ultimately all projects will eventually be let using the latest version i.e. NEC4. The switch to NEC4 has been branded by the authors as “evolution rather than revolution”, so users should find NEC4 simply minor changes or additions to what they were already used to.
These guidance notes give extra practical advice as to how the contract should be understood/administered for the benefit of all parties. The first section gives an overview of the suite of contracts, and from then on in the guidance focuses predominantly on the ECC (Engineering and Construction Contract), which is one of the contracts available within the suite and the most commonly used within the industry.
Most of this guidance however is equally applicable to the PSC (Professional Services Contract) and the ECS (Engineering and Construction Subcontract) which are almost identical in structure and requirements but have different named parties within the contract. Many of the principles within the guidance such as early warnings and compensation events are equally applicable to most of the other contracts available within the NEC4 suite of contracts.
This section of the website will continually be added to on a regular basis. So, please bookmark this page and check back soon, and share it with your colleagues and friends in the industry on LinkedIn and get involved in the LinkedIn NEC People discussion group.
If there are particular clauses or areas of the contract that you would like to see or you have any feedback, please let us know and we will do our best to add /amend the content. Whilst these guidance notes are the opinion of GMH Planning as to how the contract clauses should be used and interpreted, these views have been gathered from several years experience and training to a broad spectrum of the industry.