Category: Blog

If an adjudicator has awarded you an amount of money in a determination made under the Security Of Payment Act NSW, known a the “Adjudicated Amount“, the respondent has 5 business days to pay.

If the respondent fails to pay the adjudicated amount you are entitled to enforce the determination.

In addition to the adjudicated amount the adjudicator would also have apportioned the adjudicator’s fees, and decided what the applicable interest rate is on overdue amounts.

For assistance with recovering the money that your are entitled to you will need to engage a commercial agent licenced by the NSW Department Of Fair Trading.

For the best result, using a commercial agent that specialises in debt recovery for the building and construction industry is an advantage.

For specialist debt recovery of an adjudicated amount find a specialist licenced commercial agent here.

Key amendments to the Security Of Payment Act NSW come into effect for all NSW building & construction contracts entered into on or after 21 October 2019

What does this mean for you?

It certainly is good news for all claimants, and especially subcontractors.

The key amendments are:

Payment Terms – the maximum time for payment of a subcontractor’s payment claim has been reduced from 30 business days to 20 business days

Endorsement of Payment Claims – all claims for payment under the Security Of Payment Act NSW must now be endorsed as claims made under the Act. The endorsement must read as follows:

“This is a payment claim made under the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999”

Reference Dates – the concept of reference dates has been removed from the Act. A claimant now has a statutory entitlement to make a claim for construction work and or related goods and services once a month for a period of up to 12 months after the work was last carried out but only one claim is allowed after a contract has been terminated.

Adjudication – a court may sever part(s) of an adjudicator’s determination if it is affected by jurisdictional error(s) and make an order to enforce the valid remainder of the determination. An adjudicator now has 10 business days from receiving the respondent’s adjudication response to mahe their determination. A claimant may withdraw their adjudication application at anytime prior to their adjudication determination.

Penalties – peanlties for prescribed offences under the Act have been significantly increased, and directors now bear personal liability. Authorised offices can now issue penalty notices.

Watch this space to stay up to date with all of the Security Of Payment Act NSW News and Caselaw developments that affect your business.

The Security Of Payment Act NSW is state based legislation.

From time to time the legislative Assembly of the New South Wales Parliament will make changes to the either or both the legislation and or the regulations.
We will keep you updated as any changes occur.

In addition to changes to the Security of Payment Act NSW legislation and regulations, every so often there is new caselaw on how certain provisions of the Security Of Payment Act NSW should be interpreted.
We will keep you updated as new law is made and explain what it means to you.

Please don’t hesitate to make an enquiry at any time – we are here to serve you and help you make the most of the Security Of Payment Act NSW, the Building And Construction Industry Security Of Payment Act 1999 (NSW).