Employer's requirements (ERs) meaning

This Practice Note considers Employer’s Requirements (often abbreviated to ERs) within a building contract. It clarifies what Employer’s Requirements are and explains that, depending on the procurement route and the form of contract, the party bearing responsibility for them may differ. It also outlines how certain standard forms address Employer’s Requirements and notes the relevance of the CIS v Henry Boot decision. What are Employer's Requirements? In JCT and FIDIC contracts, ‘Employer’s Requirements’ (ERs) describes the documents issued by the employer that set out its project needs, on which the design and construction of the works are founded. These typically include: performance specifications drawings initial designs The NEC suite takes a different tack. Under NEC3, the employer’s requirements are contained within the ‘Works Information’, identified in Part One of the Contract Data. NEC4 adopts the same structure as NEC3, but rebrands the ‘Works Information’ as the ‘Scope’...

Practice Note This Practice Note serves as a guide to negotiations, examining frequent design-related matters that surface when drafting and settling building contracts. It reviews clauses typically put forward during contract talks, the difficulties that employer-inserted provisions in a draft building contract may create for the contractor, and the ways in which the contractor will usually answer them. It further explores how the parties, to secure agreement of the building contract, might address these design issues and, where feasible, arrive at a middle ground that both find acceptable. This Practice Note is not tied to any single form of building contract; the draft agreement in which these points may emerge could be a standard form with a schedule of amendments, or a bespoke contract form. It considers provisions commonly proposed when negotiating a building contract, the problems such employer-drafted terms create for contractors, and the contractor’s usual responses...

Early neutral evaluation Early neutral evaluation is a type of alternative dispute resolution in which the parties invite an independent third party to provide a view on the merits of the case, or on particular issues within it. The evaluator will typically be a legal professional or a specialist in the relevant field. See Practice Note: Early Neutral Evaluation (ENE). Early warning The early warning process features most prominently in the NEC3/NEC4 suite of contracts, although the concept also appears in some other standard forms. It obliges the contracting parties to notify each other, as soon as either becomes aware of any matter that might increase the total cost, delay completion, or reduce the performance of the finished works, allowing the issue to be tackled proactively. For further details on the NEC context, see Practice Note: NEC—risk management (The early warning procedure)...