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NSW · Updated 25 July 2026
What is a payment claim — and what happens if they don't reply?
A payment claim is an invoice that starts a statutory clock. It can be the same piece of paper you always send. What makes it a payment claim is that it says three specific things — and once it does, the other side has a short, fixed window to answer. If they say nothing, they owe the whole amount and lose the right to argue about it. That single consequence is the most powerful thing in NSW construction, and it turns on one line of text.
The three things it must say
That's the whole test. Miss the third and you have an invoice.
What the claim is for. Enough that the reader can tell which work and which period.
The figure you say is due for that work.
In terms: that it is a payment claim made under the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 (NSW). This is the switch. Without it, none of the clocks start, no deemed liability arises, and adjudication isn't available — no matter how correct the money is.
When you can serve it
- From the last day of the month in which you first carried out the work, and the last day of every month after that. Your contract can nominate an earlier day in the month — many do.
- One claim per named month. But that doesn't mean one bite: a claim can include work from earlier months, and it can re-claim amounts you've claimed before and not been paid. Being knocked back once does not spend the right.
- If the contract has been terminated, you can serve from the date of termination.
- The outer limit is the period stated in your contract, or 12 months after you last carried out the work — whichever is later.
What the claim is worth
The amount is whatever the contract says it is. Where the contract doesn't provide for it, the claim is valued on the value of the work carried out — having regard to the contract price, the contract rates, and any agreed variations.
Two things worth knowing about that valuation. If work is defective, the estimated cost of rectifying it comes off — a defect isn't a reason to withhold everything, it's a deduction to be valued. And materials sitting on site that aren't fixed yet only count if they have become your customer's property, or will become theirs on payment.
Head contractors: the supporting statement, and why it's the one to take seriously
If you're a head contractor serving a payment claim on a principal, you must attach a supporting statement in the approved form, declaring that all your subcontractors have been paid what was due to them. There are two approved forms — one for a standard construction contract, one for an owner-occupier contract.
This is not paperwork with a slap on the wrist behind it. Serving a claim without the statement is an offence carrying a penalty up to 1,000 penalty units for a company. Knowingly giving a false statement can carry imprisonment of up to 3 months.
And it reaches individuals: a director who knows a supporting statement is false and fails to take reasonable steps commits an offence in their own right. "The office does the claims" is not an answer — which is precisely why the subcontractor ledger behind that declaration needs to be something you can actually see, on the day you sign it.
How to serve it — and the email trap
You can serve a document under the Act personally, by leaving it at their ordinary place of business during office hours, by post (which takes effect when it's actually received, not when you send it), by email, or in whatever way your contract says documents are to be served.
What happens next: they have 10 business days
Once served, the other side must reply with a payment schedule — a document that identifies your claim, states the amount they propose to pay, and, if that's less than you claimed, gives every reason why.
They get 10 business days, or the shorter period in the contract if there is one — whichever comes first. Business days exclude weekends, public holidays and 27 to 31 December.
They schedule the full amount and pay it. Done — that's the system working as intended.
They schedule less. The dispute is now confined to the reasons they wrote down — see below.
They say nothing at all. They become liable for the full amount you claimed, on the due date.
If they don't reply — what that actually means
People assume silence just means "chase them again". It doesn't. Silence converts your claim into a debt they cannot defend.
If you sue for it, the other side cannot bring a cross-claim, and cannot raise any defence arising under the construction contract. Not defects. Not backcharges. Not "the work was never worth that". Those arguments were available to them for 10 business days and they didn't make them.
That is why this is the single most consequential clock in NSW construction — and why, if you're the one receiving claims, an unopened envelope is a genuine business risk rather than an admin annoyance. What you can do with an unanswered claim →
The trap on the other side: reasons not written down are lost
If you're responding to a claim, understand what the schedule locks in. Every reason you have for paying less must be in that document. A reason you leave out cannot be raised later in an adjudication — the adjudicator will not consider it.
So a vague schedule ("we dispute the amount claimed") is worse than useless: it satisfies the deadline but throws away the arguments. Whatever the real objections are — defective work, incomplete work, a variation never approved, a backcharge, a set-off — they go in the schedule, in writing, the first time.
This is general information about how the NSW scheme works, not advice about your matter. Whether a particular document is a valid payment claim, and what your dates are, depends on your contract and your facts. Where real money is riding on it, get advice early — the windows are short enough that a week spent wondering is often the whole difference.
One missing line shouldn't cost you the claim.
Everything above is a document that has to say the right thing, go to the right address, and land inside the right window — repeatedly, on every job, every month. eSiteOffice drafts what the Act and the contract require, serves it the way the contract nominates, and watches both sides' clocks — so the line that arms the whole thing is never the line that got left off. It opens in September. Tell us where you fit and we'll send you something worth having in the meantime.