Building and construction payments

Payments associated with building and construction are governed by the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 (NSW).

The Act facilitates fair and timely remuneration for construction work. It is important for contractors and subcontractors to be aware of how to make and respond to a payment claim in accordance with the Act.

How to make a payment claim

You can make a payment claim to receive anything that is owed to you for construction work or goods and services you have provided under the terms of a contract or within the last 12 months (whichever is the later). This applies if you are a:

head contractor
subcontractor
supplier
plant and equipment hirer
consultant.

Find out how to make a claim

Providing a supporting statement

A contractor must provide a supporting statement when making a payment claim.

In the supporting statement, the contractor is to declare they have paid all payments due to subcontractors they have engaged for the construction work.
The contractor must also detail subcontractor payments made and any amounts in dispute.

IMPORTANT: Knowingly providing false or misleading information on a supporting statement can lead to a maximum $22,000 penalty and/or three months imprisonment.

Payment Schedule

A respondent to a payment claim must provide the claimant a payment schedule.

A payment schedule must:

be in writing and be addressed to the claimant;
identify the related payment claim;
state the scheduled amount of payment that you propose to make, if any;
state all the reasons why if the payment is less that the amount claimed; and
be posted, delivered or faxed to the claimant to reach them within 10 business days after you received the payment claim.

What to do if you have not been paid

Contractors

In the first instance, AlburyCity’s Procurement & Contract Management team is available to discuss your situation.

Alternatively, if you have not received a payment schedule within the required number of business days after making a claim, or you have not been paid by the due date, you can apply for adjudication to a Fair Trading approved adjudicator.

Sub-contractors

If you have issued an invoice to a contractor for AlburyCity project works and have not received payment by the due date you can apply for adjudication to a Fair Trading approved adjudicator and serve a ‘payment withholding request’ to AlburyCity.

If AlburyCity does receive a valid payment withholding request from a subcontractor or supplier, we can then hold payment until the adjudication is complete.