What does NEC4 clause 60.1(7) mean?
A Project Manager's instruction for dealing with an object of value or of historical or other interest found within the Site is a compensation event.
Updated: 15 September 2026. By Jack Butler-Kettle, Quantity Surveyor & Claims Consultant.
The answer
Clause 60.1(7) deals with finds. The event is not the discovery itself but the Project Manager's instruction for dealing with an object of value or of historical or other interest found within the Site. The Contractor leaves the find undisturbed and tells the Project Manager, and it is the Project Manager's instruction about what to do with it, whether to stop, excavate by hand, allow a specialist in, or remove and record it, that triggers the event. The object has to be within the Site and of value or of historical or other interest; general obstructions with no such quality are dealt with, if at all, under clause 60.1(12) as physical conditions. To bring an event within the paragraph the Contractor shows the find, its location within the Site, that it reported the find, and the instruction the Project Manager gave. Because the event arises from the Project Manager's own instruction, the Project Manager notifies the compensation event when giving the instruction and instructs a quotation; if that is missed the Contractor notifies under clause 61.3, and the eight week bar does not apply because the Project Manager should have notified it. The change to the Prices is assessed under clause 63.1 as the effect of the instruction on the actual Defined Cost of work done by the date of the instruction and the forecast Defined Cost of work not yet done, plus the Fee, normally standing plant and people, hand excavation and recording. What most often goes wrong is that the Contractor notifies the stop under clause 60.1(4) and the find under clause 60.1(12) as well, and ends up with three notifications for one event, or that the instruction comes from the Client's archaeologist rather than the Project Manager and is not an instruction until the Project Manager confirms it. Any delay to the Completion Date is assessed separately under clause 63 by the programming expert.
Example
The situation
A piling contractor exposes a carved stone lintel while excavating a pile cap and reports it to the Project Manager. The Project Manager instructs the contractor to stop work around the find, to excavate the surrounding area by hand under the supervision of a specialist the Client appoints, and then to lift and store the stone.
What happens
- The Project Manager notifies the compensation event with the instruction.
- The quotation assesses under clause 63.1 the hand excavation, the lifting and the storage at £5,200 of Defined Cost.
- The rig and crew standing while the specialist works are assessed at £2,300, giving £7,500.
- With a fee percentage of 11 per cent the Fee is £825 and the proposed change to the Prices is £8,325.
- The quotation states the assumption about how long the specialist needs, so that if the Project Manager later corrects it the difference can be dealt with as a further compensation event.
The quotation in figures
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Hand excavation, lifting and storage | £5,200 |
| Rig and crew standing | £2,300 |
| Defined Cost | £7,500 |
| Fee at 11 per cent | £825 |
| Proposed change to the Prices | £8,325 |
The outcome
The proposed change to the Prices is £8,325: £7,500 of Defined Cost plus the Fee of £825, with the stated assumption on the specialist's time open to correction.