The s.110B Back-Audit
ForensicFixed FeeFor Subcontractors, Main Contractors & Clients10 working days per contract
I comb your past payment cycles for the ones where the payer's notices failed and your application became the sum legally payable.
The problem
Where the payer gave no valid Payment Notice and no valid Pay Less Notice, a valid application can stand as the Notified Sum, payable in full. That is the Act's least-used mechanism, and most payees have cycles like this in their history without knowing it. Under-certified sums you wrote off at the time may still be recoverable, and the only way to know is to reconstruct the cycles and test the notices.
The solution
You hand over the cycle records, and I rebuild each cycle's statutory timeline, testing your application's validity and the payer's notices' validity and timing, cycle by cycle. How far back the audit reaches is agreed with you in writing at scoping, within what your records reach and the limitation clock allows, generally six years from each unpaid cycle, or twelve where the contract was signed as a deed. Where a valid application went unanswered by any valid notice, s.110B of the Construction Act fixed your application as the sum payable, whatever was certified, and the audit puts a figure on the difference.
What you receive
A detailed written report on every cycle checked: the sums identified, the strength and limitation position of each, and a recommended route for anything worth pursuing, or documented confidence that nothing was left behind. It also diagnoses the process gaps that let the cycles slip, so they don't recur.
The Handover Pack accompanies the work with its dates and sources, likely outcomes and responses, scope boundaries and ready-to-send correspondence where needed.
Turnaround: ten working days per contract.
The working days start when the agreed scope and required inputs are available. Optional items do not hold the start unless the agreed scope says otherwise.
Need it faster? Ask on the first call: an express turnaround is quoted in writing where the diary allows it.
How it works
You send me the paperwork
You send everything below per contract, covering the audit period we agree in writing at scoping, in one handover. The Master Payment Tracker format is ideal: the tidier the records, the less reconstruction the audit needs.
- A
Every past cycle's application, notice and certificate
EssentialWithout it: That cycle cannot be audited, and it is left blank rather than assessed
Where to find it: The sent items of whoever issues your applications, month by month; forwarding the original emails carries the service dates with them.
Why I need it: The audit is of the cycles, so every cycle is needed
- B
Payment records
EssentialWithout it: There is nothing to test what was actually paid against what fell due, and the exposure figure cannot be built
Where to find it: Your accounts package or bank statements show what landed and when.
Why I need it: What was actually paid against what fell due
- C
The contract and every amendment
EssentialWithout it: There is nothing to measure any cycle's dates against, and the audit cannot run
Where to find it: The signed contract in the commercial folder or attached to the order email.
Why I need it: Every question of validity is answered from here
- D
Proof of the dates of service, both ways
ImportantWithout it: The service date rests on recollection, and that cycle is reported on the conservative reading with both readings stated
Where to find it: The original sent items for what you served, and the original received items for what came back from the other side; forwarded copies with headers intact fix the dates, not screenshots or recollection.
Why I need it: Service dates decide most of the answers
Quality: the original email with headers, or a recorded delivery receipt.
Copies are fine. Send what you have and I'll tell you what's missing. Download the client request PDF or editable Word version to pass to whoever holds the files.
Audit period agreed in writing.
How far back the audit reaches is agreed with you in writing before any cycle is examined, so the scope is fixed before the work starts.
- A
I reconstruct each cycle's statutory timeline
Every application's validity, every payer notice's validity and timing, cycle by cycle.
Verdicts on evidenced dates.
No cycle is judged on an assumed service date; where a date cannot be evidenced, the cautious reading is stated alongside the finding.
I identify where s.110B bites
The cycles where no valid notice answered a valid application, and the difference that fixes as payable.
I put a figure and a deadline on each finding
The recoverable difference per cycle, and how long the limitation clock leaves to act on it, so the strongest findings are acted on first.
Figures checked before stated.
No sum is reported until each failed cycle's recoverability is checked and the total reconciles against what was applied and what was paid.
You decide what to pursue
The report ranks each recoverable cycle by strength and limitation position. Which findings to pursue, and how hard, stays your call.
I hand over the sums found and the route to them
Free Service Pack
A step-by-step Handbook, with the templates and working documents you need to carry out the work it covers yourself. You supply your own project information and records.
Follow the Handbook's scope and stopping points, and obtain independent advice where required. The pack is not project-specific advice or independent sign-off.
Tips that raise your odds of success
Questions I get asked often
Anything found feeds straight into adjudication support, and the process gaps it surfaces are what Payment Process Setup & Support closes.