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Contract clocks that start in an email: what to watch

By Saqib Shah · · 4 min read

Contract clocks that start in an emailThree horizontal timelines: a compensation event with an eight week notification window, a payment notice due within five days of the payment due date, and a pay less notice due before the final date for payment. Clocks that start in an emailThree common contract clocks, drawn from the day each one startsCompensation event (NEC4 ECC)Notify, or you can lose the change in price and timeStarts: You become aware8 weeksDeadlinePayment noticeLatest date for the payment noticeStarts: Payment due date5 daysDeadlinePay less noticeCounts back from the final date for paymentLatest day to give the noticeA period set by your contractFinal date for payment

TL;DR. Several contract deadlines start the day something arrives in your inbox, and missing one can cost money. Under the standard NEC4 Engineering and Construction Contract wording, a contractor who does not notify a compensation event within eight weeks of becoming aware of it can lose the change to price and time. Under the Construction Act, payment notices have set timings too. This is general information, not legal advice. Your contract and your solicitor decide.

Why do contract clocks and email belong in the same sentence?

Because the thing that starts a clock is often a message: an instruction, a change in programme, a late drawing, an application for payment. The contract decides what counts as notification, who must give it, to whom and in what form. If nobody has written down the day the message arrived, the clock is running and nobody knows it.

What is the NEC4 eight-week rule?

Under clause 61.3 of the standard NEC4 Engineering and Construction Contract, if the contractor does not notify a compensation event within eight weeks of becoming aware that the event has happened, the Prices, the Completion Date and any Key Date are not changed. The time bar does not apply to events that arise from the Project Manager or Supervisor giving an instruction or notification, issuing a certificate or changing an earlier decision.

Three cautions apply:

  • Other NEC contracts differ. This is the Engineering and Construction Contract. If you work under a professional services contract or a subcontract, find the clause that applies to you.
  • Contracts are often amended. Read the Contract Data and any additional conditions before you rely on the standard wording.
  • Awareness is the trigger. The period runs from the day the contractor becomes aware that the event has happened, so the date you first knew is worth recording when it happens.

What are payment notices under the Construction Act?

Section 110A of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 says a construction contract must require a payment notice for every payment, given either by the payer or by the payee, not later than five days after the payment due date. Where the payee gives it, the notice has to state the sum the payee considers due at the due date and how it was calculated. A notice with a sum of zero still counts.

If the contract does not meet these requirements, the Scheme for Construction Contracts fills the gap. Section 110B deals with the payee’s notice where the payer was required to give one and has not done so in time.

What is a pay less notice?

Section 111 deals with the notice of intention to pay less than the notified sum. It has to be given no later than a prescribed period before the final date for payment. The parties may agree that period, and without agreement it comes from the Scheme. It must state the sum the payer considers due and the basis on which that sum is calculated. The sum may be zero.

The period is the part that depends on your contract. Read the payment clause, and do not assume a figure from another job.

Does this apply to a design consultancy?

It may, and it is not something to assume either way. Section 104 extends the meaning of a construction contract to an agreement to do architectural, design or surveying work, or to provide advice on building or engineering, in relation to construction operations. Section 105 excludes some work from construction operations, including the assembly, installation or demolition of plant or machinery on sites whose primary activity is nuclear processing, power generation or water and effluent treatment.

Whether your appointment is a construction contract is a question for your solicitor, and it affects which of these provisions you can rely on.

How can a busy team keep the clocks visible?

  • Write down the day. When something arrives that might start a clock, note the date and the message, in the project record rather than a personal inbox.
  • Give each clock one owner. A named person who decides whether to notify, not a shared mailbox.
  • Diarise early. Set a reminder well inside the period, not on the last day.
  • Keep the contract summary beside the project. The notice periods, who notifies whom, and in what form.
  • Review weekly. A short Friday check of anything waiting on you or running against you catches the quiet ones.

We cover the inbox side of this in where HV consultancies lose work in the inbox .

Sources

Accessed 14 October 2026.

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