Is bad weather a compensation event under NEC4?
Only when the month's measured weather is worse than the weather that happens once in 10 years at the place your contract names.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
For the clause wording and how the assessment is limited, see what NEC4 clause 60.1(13) means.
The answer
Ordinary bad weather is your risk under NEC4, however frustrating it is. The weather compensation event, clause 60.1(13) in the NEC4 main contract, is a test of records, not of opinion. The Contract Data names a weather station, the measurements that count and the source of the weather data. The measurements are things like rainfall or days with snow lying. You compare one calendar month's record at that station with the once-in-10-years value for the same month. Only if the record is worse is there an event. Even then, you are paid only for the difference between the actual weather and the once-in-10-years weather, not for every wet day. The clock starts when the month's record is available, and you notify within the period your subcontract sets. So record the weather days on site, and get the station's monthly records as they are published. Ask for the once-in-10-years values at the start of the job. Your subcontract may change this clause or name a different station, so check yours. On a JCT job, exceptionally adverse weather usually gives you time but not money. Our Compensation Event Claim service tests a refused weather event against the records and the clause.
Example
Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.
The facts
A landscaping subcontractor on an NEC4 subcontract loses 9 days to rain in November and asks whether it has a compensation event. The Contract Data names a weather station and lists rainfall and days with snow lying.
What happens
- The named station records 118 millimetres of rain that November, against a once-in-10-years value of 142 millimetres.
- November was wet, but not wetter than the once-in-10-years level, so there is no compensation event.
- In January the same station records 12 days with snow lying, against a once-in-10-years value of 7, and that month does qualify.
- Only the 5 days above the once-in-10-years value count, and the subcontractor quotes for their effect: £4,800 of Defined Cost plus the Fee.
The outcome
November stays with the subcontractor. January's event is assessed on the 5 excess days only, not all 12.
To have a refused weather event tested against the records and pressed to implementation, see our Compensation Event Claim service.