The dates are the product
There is no shortage of templates for a payment notice or a pay less notice. There is very little that tells you when they are due, and the deadline decides the money. A perfectly drafted pay less notice served a day late is worth nothing at all.
Everything measures from one date. On JCT it is the interim valuation date, on NEC the assessment date, and the whole chain hangs off it: the payment due date, the payment notice deadline, the pay less deadline, the final date for payment.
The chain that ends in paying in full
This is the sequence worth understanding, because each step is a date rather than an argument.
- The payer does not serve a payment notice in time. Section 110B of the Construction Act lets the payee serve one instead, and the sum in it becomes the notified sum. Where the payee has already applied, the application does that job.
- The payer then does not serve a pay less notice in time. Section 111(1): the payer must pay the notified sum, to the extent not already paid, on or before the final date for payment.
- So the application is payable in full. Whatever anybody thinks the work was worth.
That is the entire basis of a smash and grab adjudication. Nobody is arguing about valuation. They are arguing about whether a notice went out by a particular day, and the answer is usually in an email header.
The window is four days
On unamended JCT Design and Build the payment notice is due five days after the due date and the pay less notice five days before the final date, which leaves four daysbetween the two. In that time you have to look at an application, work out that it is overstated, decide to challenge it, and get a compliant notice out of the door.
Four days is not long when the person who has to sign it is on site. It is one reason payment notices and pay less notices are so often served together, which is entirely sensible, and also why a bank holiday in the wrong place causes so much trouble.
On amended contracts that window sometimes disappears. Shorten the final date for payment without touching the pay less period and the pay less deadline can land on, or before, the payment notice deadline. When it does, there is no sequence to follow: both have to go out at once. The tool flags it when the periods you enter produce that.
A pay less notice needs a basis, not just a number
The Act requires it to specify the sum the payer considers to be due on the date the notice is served, and the basis on which that sum is calculated. A notice that says "we consider £40,000 is due" and stops there is a figure without a basis, and that is the second most common way one fails after being served late.
The standard forms are a starting point, not your contract
The periods on this page are the unamended JCT and NEC positions. Almost nobody works to an unamended contract. Payment periods get lengthened, notice periods get shortened, and the amendment is exactly where the risk is concentrated, because everyone carries the standard timings in their head.
So every period here can be overridden. Put in what the contract particulars say and the dates come out for your job rather than for a form you did not sign. What does not change is what happens when a deadline is missed: that part is statutory and the contract cannot contract out of it.
Common questions
When must a payment notice be served?
Not later than five days after the payment due date under most standard forms. On JCT Design and Build the due date is seven days after the interim valuation date, so the payment notice deadline is twelve days after valuation. Amended contracts move this, and amended contracts are the norm.
What happens if the payer does not serve a payment notice?
Section 110B of the Construction Act lets the payee serve one instead, and the sum in it becomes the notified sum. Where the payee has already made an application, that application does the job. From that point the payer is arguing about a figure they did not set.
What happens if no pay less notice is served?
Section 111(1) is blunt: the payer must pay the notified sum, to the extent not already paid, on or before the final date for payment. In full, whatever the work was worth. A smash and grab adjudication runs entirely on that basis, turning on a date rather than on any argument about value.
What must a pay less notice contain?
The sum the payer considers to be due on the date the notice is served, and the basis on which that sum is calculated. A bare figure with no basis is the second most common way one fails, after being served late.
How long is there between the two notice deadlines?
Four days on unamended JCT Design and Build. That is the entire window in which to look at an application, decide it is wrong and get a notice out. On some amended contracts the gap collapses to nothing or inverts, in which case the only safe course is to serve both together.
Do these dates apply to my contract?
The statutory consequences do, for construction contracts within the Act. The periods do not: JCT and NEC standard forms are starting points and amendment is close to universal. What governs your job is the contract particulars, which is why every period here can be overridden.