We are the project manager on an NEC3 ECC project and have a query about the 8 week time limit for notifying compensation events in clause 61.3. Does this apply to a compensation event that should we should have notified to the contractor, even if we were unaware of the issue?
Clause 61.3 allows the contractor to notify any compensation event it wishes to, including a compensation event which you should have notified but failed to. However, the time bar for that notification only applies to compensation events which you were not required to notify.
If you look at pages 73 and 74 of the ECC Guidance Notes (2013 edition), it gives guidance – by reference to the subclasses numbers of clause 60.1 – as to which categories of compensation events you should notify, and which therefore the time bar does not apply to, and which categories of compensation events the time bar does apply to.
The moral of all of this is that you should do what the contract requires in respect of notifying compensation events that have arisen from your actions. If you do not do so, then the contractor can come back much later and notify them.