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Payment & Pay Less Notice Assembly & Issuance

Risk mitigationOngoingFor Main Contractors & ClientsMoney out

I assemble every payment notice and pay less notice you owe, in each subcontract's required form with the reasons attached, ready for signature while its window is open. Under the Construction Act, the notice you fail to serve becomes the sum you pay in full.

The problem

Every subcontract you let carries its own notice regime: what must be served, in what form, inside which window, and the windows rarely line up across the job. Miss one payment notice and the Act does the arithmetic for you: the application you never answered becomes the notified sum, payable in full, right or wrong. Most main contractors meet this rule for the first time in an adjudication they have already lost.

The solution

I map every live subcontract's regime once, one calendar: which notices each demands, their windows, required forms and recipients. Then each cycle I draft what each account owes, the payment notice stating the sum and its basis, and, where the position demands, the pay less notice with its grounds set out rather than asserted. Each reaches you ready for signature with its window still open, and goes out in your name. What was served, when and how is logged with proof, so the file shows the regime run correctly. The same machinery serves an employer paying a main contractor.

What you receive

The accidental full-payment default ends: no application sits unanswered, no window passes unnoticed, and every deduction you make is stated in the right form with grounds that survive scrutiny. The file carries proof of a regime operated correctly, which quietly deters the chancing adjudication, and the person who used to rebuild the notice diary from the subcontract pile late at night stops.

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: two working days per notice.

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

  1. You tell me about your subcontracts and their dates

    One call on the supply chain, the cycle and any window that has already been missed. The first conversation is free and commits you to nothing.

  2. You send me the subcontracts and the current positions

    The list below lets the calendar be built from the subcontracts' own words before the next window opens.

    • A

      The assessment with its build-up

      Essential

      Without it: There is no sum and no build-up to draft the notice from, so nothing beyond the header can be prepared.

      Where to find it: Your surveyor's working papers, or the assessment I have just handed you.

      Why I need it: The sum and where it came from

    • B

      Every deduction with its ground

      Important

      Without it: Any deduction without its clause and its own amount is left out of the notice altogether, and reported back as sought but not applied.

      Where to find it: Your surveyor's working papers, or the assessment I have just handed you.

      Why I need it: A deduction without a ground fails

    • C

      The subcontract and every amendment

      Essential

      Without it: There are no periods, form or route to draft the notice against, so nothing can be prepared at all.

      Where to find it: The buying folder or each order's confirmation email.

      Why I need it: The periods and the form that decide validity

    • D

      The applications received

      Essential

      Without it: There is nothing to fix which application the notice answers, so the notice cannot be drafted at all.

      Where to find it: The payment folder and the inbox of whoever the subcontractors apply to.

      Why I need it: What the notice answers

    • E

      The email that transmitted each application, with its headers

      Important

      Without it: The application date is taken from the date printed on the application itself, so every period counted from it, and therefore every notice date, rests on an unproven date.

      Where to find it: The inbox of whoever the subcontractors apply to; the original received email, not a forwarded copy, because forwarding strips the headers that fix the date.

      Why I need it: The date the period runs from, proven rather than asserted

    • F

      Every certificate and notice already issued on this account

      Essential

      Without it: The previous certified sum cannot be checked. The application's own statement is the payee's figure, not evidence of the payer's certification, so reconciliation to the previous certificate cannot be completed.

      Where to find it: The payment folder, or your own file of certificates and notices issued on this account.

      Why I need it: The previously certified figure the notice deducts, and the running position

    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.

  3. I map every notice window across the supply chain

    One calendar: which notices each subcontract demands, in what form, by when, to whom. You hold it too, so nothing depends on my diary alone.

    Window Open Confirmed

    Before anything is drafted, today's date is checked against the contract's own notice periods, so no notice is built for a window that has already closed.

  4. I draft each notice ahead of its date

    Payment notices with their basis, pay less notices with their grounds, in each subcontract's required form, ready days before the window closes.

    Grounds Behind Every Sum

    A pay less notice leaves with every deduction identified separately and a written basis for each, because a notice without grounds is one waiting to fail.

  5. You sign and serve in your own name

    Everything goes out on your letterhead by the route the subcontract demands; the subcontractors deal with you, not with me.

    Route and Addressee Checked

    The route, the exact addressee and the last date for service are confirmed from the contract before the notice reaches you for signature.

  6. I log what was served and carry the positions forward

    Each notice recorded with its proof of service, each account's position kept current, so the file shows the regime run properly month after month.

I keep proof of a regime run correctly

See the full outcome in What you receive.

Between projects the service pauses rather than cancels: nothing is re-onboarded, the file and the diary stay warm, and it resumes the day the next project starts.

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.

My products used

Tips that raise your odds of success

Questions I get asked often

The sums these notices carry are built by Payment Application Assessment & Certification, and the two run together with the account-keeping as Subcontractor Account Administration. The mirror of this work, reading the notices served on you, is Payment & Pay Less Notice Checking & Response.