Two contracts, two sets of deadlines
Under the NSW Security of Payment Act (Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999), your contract with the client and each contract with a trade are treated separately. You have different duties and different deadlines in each — and they all run at once.
- Your payment claim must say it’s made under the Security of Payment Act. Without that line, the Act doesn’t apply.
- The client has 10 business days to reply in writing with a payment schedule (fewer if your contract says so). If they don’t, they owe the full amount and can’t dispute it.
- Payment is due 15 business days after your claim.
- Your 10 business days (fewer if the contract says so) start the day the claim arrives — not the day someone opens it.
- Your reply must list every reason for paying less. Any reason you leave out, you can’t raise later.
- Payment is due 20 business days after their claim.
The exception: a home the owner lives in
If the work is on a home the owner lives in or will live in, the 15- and 20-day rules don’t apply. Payment is due on the date the contract sets — or 10 business days after the claim if the contract doesn’t say. On these contracts the contract’s date stands. (The rule that cancels contract terms delaying payment applies to the 15- and 20-day dates, not this one.)
“I haven’t been paid by the client yet” is not a defence
In NSW, “pay when paid” and “pay if paid” clauses are void. What you owe your trades doesn’t depend on whether your client has paid you. Using it as a reason not to pay is one of the most common ways a short cash-flow squeeze becomes a debt you can’t defend.
The supporting statement: a personal risk for directors
When you send a payment claim to your client, you must attach a supporting statement on the approved form. It declares that the trades and suppliers you hired directly have been paid what was due. It doesn’t cover anyone further down the chain. There are two approved forms: one for standard contracts and one for owner-occupier contracts.
Leaving it out is an offence, with a penalty of up to 1,000 penalty units for a company. Knowingly giving a false one can mean up to 3 months’ imprisonment. And a director who knows a statement is false and doesn’t take reasonable steps commits an offence personally.
So before you sign one, you need to know exactly what every trade is owed and what has been paid.
Other deadlines work the same way
Payment is where deadlines matter most, but it isn’t the only place. A variation agreed on the phone and never written down. An extension-of-time claim with a notice period buried in the contract. A defect notice with a time limit to respond. In each case the deadline runs whether anyone is watching or not — and missing it can cost you the right to claim at all.
The fix isn’t a better memory. It’s a routine: the paperwork done on the day, every time.
Who sends and who replies
Who can send a payment claim? Anyone owed a progress payment for building work, materials, plant hire or related services — builders, trades, suppliers, labour hire, designers and building advisers.
Who replies? Whoever receives one. Owners, owners corporations and owner-builders only ever reply. Builders and trades do both.
Work out your payment deadlines
A payment claim starts several deadlines the moment it’s received: when the other side must reply, when payment is due, and how long there is to apply for adjudication. Miss one and you can lose the right altogether.
Weekends, NSW public holidays and 27–31 December don’t count, and your contract can shorten some periods — so the real date is rarely the one you’d guess. If your contract sets its own period, it’s counted the way the contract defines a day (calendar, working or business days), which can make a week’s difference.
Our free calculator asks a few questions, then shows every deadline, the section of the Act it comes from, and what happens if you miss it.
The calculator asks questions because the website doesn’t know your contract. eSiteOffice will: you enter the contract once, and every deadline is worked out from it. Opens October.