Amendments to New Engineering Contracts (NEC3) suite published

Practical Law UK Legal Update 1-508-2311 (Approx. 3 pages)

Amendments to New Engineering Contracts (NEC3) suite published

by PLC Construction

Amendments to the New Engineering Contracts (NEC3) suite have been published to reflect the amendments to the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 (Construction Act 1996).

The NEC has published the amendments to the New Engineering Contracts (NEC3) suite to reflect the amendments to Part II of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 (Construction Act 1996), required by Part 8 of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 (LDEDC Act 2009). The amendments are published free on its website.

The amendments are for use on contracts entered into after the effective date of the amendments (1 October 2011 in England and Wales, and 1 November 2011 in Scotland).

The amendments revise the adjudication provisions in Option W2 and the payment provisions in Y(UK)2 or, in the short contracts, by additional conditions. In essence:

The adjudication amendments include a revised slip rule, with errors amended within five days (W2 currently refers to 14 days) (section 108(3A), Construction Act 1996 (as amended)), provision for the adjudicator to allocate his fees and expenses of the adjudication (section 108A, Construction Act 1996 (as amended)) and a requirement to pay an adjudicator's decision within seven days (section 111(9), Construction Act 1996 (as amended)).
The amended payment provisions include substantial amendments to reflect the new payment notice requirements (section 110A, Construction Act 1996 (as amended)), and withholding notices are replaced by a requirement to pay the notified sum and to give a pay less notice (section 111, Construction Act 1996 (as amended)).
A right to suspend has been included in all NEC3 contracts as a compensation event (this only affects the short contracts, where previously no right to suspend existed).

Source: NEC press release, Construction Act changes to NEC3 contracts, September 2011.

End of Document

Also Found In

Resource ID 1-508-2311

Published on 16-Sep-2011

Resource Type Legal update: archive

Jurisdictions

England
Wales