Payment claims under the Construction Contracts Act 2013

In a recent adjudication, the failure to deliver a payment claim notice as per the methodology described in the sub-contract proved fatal. This was despite the contractor seemingly confirming the receipt of the payment claim notice by email.

The sub-contract defined what was a payment claim, for the purpose of receiving a valuation. Separately the sub-contract defined a payment claim notice, for the purpose of compliance with the Construction Contracts Act 2013 (“CCA”), which was to be delivered by registered post and clearly have Payment Claim Notice marked on the application. 

In this case, the sub-contractor, cognisant of the two separate requirements, drew attention to the terms of the sub-contract and referring to the CCA and wrote the contractor in the first valuation. The contractor gave what appeared to be a positive response (or certainly a response which would indicate that the claim was being accepted as a Payment Claim). The claims continued like this throughout the currency of the project and when it came to issuing the last payment claim notice, nothing had changed. But it had! 

The adjudicator found that the contractor had not accepted a different mode of delivery, and if he had, presumably it would only have applied to the first valuation. 

The above shows the importance of following the contract, even if your employer suggests another method of delivery is acceptable.