How long does the contractor have to submit a compensation event quotation?
Three weeks from the instruction to quote, under an unamended NEC4 ECC, with the project manager's reply due two weeks after that; the eight-week limit for notifying the event is a separate and earlier deadline.
Updated: 15 September 2026. By Jack Butler-Kettle, Quantity Surveyor & Claims Consultant.
The answer
Three weeks, on the standard NEC4 ECC. The sequence is notification first: a compensation event the contractor believes has happened must be notified within eight weeks of becoming aware of it, or the entitlement to a change in the prices and dates is lost where the project manager should not have notified it. Once the project manager instructs a quotation, the contractor submits it within three weeks, and the project manager replies within two weeks of the submission, accepting it, instructing a revised quotation or making their own assessment. Both periods can be extended by agreement before they expire. The quotation itself is a forecast of the effect on Defined Cost plus Fee and on the Completion Date, built from the Schedule of Cost Components, not a claim after the event. Z clauses change these periods often enough that the executed contract should be checked before any date is diarised.
Example
The situation
A contractor receives an instruction to quote under an unamended NEC4 ECC. The quotation is due three weeks after the instruction and the project manager's reply two weeks after that, and the design change is still being detailed.
What happens
- The instruction to quote is received and the three-week quotation date is diarised, with the project manager's two-week reply date after it.
- The contractor finds it needs longer because the design change is still being detailed.
- The extension is agreed with the project manager before the quotation date, not asked for the day after it.
The outcome
The quotation date is either met or extended by agreement before it passes; an extension requested the day after the date is too late.
NEC Compensation Event Review checks the quotation against the contract, the cost records and the assumptions before it goes in.