NEC4 Clause 15 requires contractor and PM to warn each other - promptly - of anything that could affect total cost, delay completion, or impair the performance of the works. Failing to give an early warning when you knew or should have known reduces your compensation event entitlement. This is one of the most misunderstood, and most commercially damaging, obligations in NEC4 contracts.
The early warning mechanism is one of NEC4's defining features. Unlike JCT, where notice obligations are often buried and contested, NEC4 Clause 15 makes the duty to warn a live, ongoing obligation throughout the contract. It applies to the contractor and to the Project Manager equally. The commercial consequence of failing to give an early warning is explicit in Clause 63.5 - the compensation event is assessed as if the early warning had been given, which almost always means a lower entitlement than the actual impact.
On NEC4 contracts, early warning notices are not an administrative nicety. They are a commercial tool, and a contractual obligation with enforceable consequences. Any contractor operating under NEC4 - whether under ECC, TSC or PSC - needs to understand what triggers an EWN, what a valid notice must contain, and how to maintain a numbered register that holds up to scrutiny in adjudication.
There is no prescribed form in NEC4 for an early warning notice - but the contract and standard NEC guidance make clear what must be communicated. The following elements should appear in every EWN you issue.
The notice should be issued in writing via the contract's specified communication method. Most NEC4 contracts specify an electronic system or email. Whatever the method, the date of receipt matters - NEC4 operates on the principle that communications take effect when received, not when sent.
A generic EWN template downloaded from the internet will give you a form. It will not give you the commercial discipline that makes early warning notices effective. The following failures are consistent across disputes and adjudications involving NEC4 EWN obligations.
An early warning must be given as soon as the contractor becomes aware of the matter - not after it has caused delay or cost. Clause 63.5 is explicit: if an early warning was not given when it should have been, the compensation event is assessed as if it had been. That means your entitlement is calculated on the assumption you gave notice and the PM acted on it - which in most cases reduces the compensation significantly.
"Possible delay to programme" is not a valid early warning notice. The notice must identify the specific matter: which trade, which area, what the constraint is, and why it is affecting the works. Courts and adjudicators have consistently found that vague notices fail the Clause 15.1 test. A notice that is too vague to allow the PM to assess the risk has not met the contractual obligation.
An early warning is not the same as a compensation event notification under Clause 61.3, but the two are closely linked. Failing to map your EWN to the relevant CE risk means you may issue the early warning correctly yet still lose entitlement because the CE notification does not follow in time. Both must be in your register and tracked.
NEC4 contemplates a Risk Register maintained jointly by the contractor and PM (Clause 11.2(14)). In practice, many contractors issue EWNs on an ad hoc basis without maintaining their own numbered register. This makes it extremely difficult to demonstrate compliance in a dispute and impossible to track the PM's response obligations. A sequential EWN register is not optional - it is basic contract management.
FitOut Insider's Early Warning Notice tool is built around NEC4 Clause 15 specifically. It is not a generic notice generator. The AI produces properly structured EWNs with Clause 15-compliant wording, in the correct format for NEC4 ECC, TSC and PSC contracts.
The tool is used by NEC4 contractors across commercial fit-out, education, healthcare and infrastructure. It is particularly useful on projects where multiple EWNs are running concurrently - which on any live NEC4 construction project is the norm, not the exception.
Clause 15 compliant. Numbered register. Linked to compensation events.
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