Serve the payment claim right, or lose the adjudication before it starts

Ask any construction lawyer where CIPAA adjudications are really won, and the honest answer is: at the start, on the paperwork. The payment claim under s.5 is the foundation stone. If it is defective, everything built on it is vulnerable. Three things matter.

Contents

The claim must state the amount claimed, describe the works or services to which the payment relates, and give the due date for the claimed amount. Vague or rolled-up claims invite challenge. Tie the amount to identifiable works and to the payment mechanism in the contract, and make the due date unambiguous.

Service

Serve the claim on the right party, at the right address, by a method the contract or the Act permits, and keep proof. A surprising number of disputes about whether time has started turn on whether — and when — the claim was actually received. Do not leave it to inference.

Timing and the response

Service starts the 10-working-day clock for the payment response. If the paying party stays silent, it is deemed to dispute the whole claim, which sounds unhelpful but is in fact your green light to proceed to a notice of adjudication. Do not read silence as agreement, and do not let the paying party’s inaction lull you into missing your own next step.

The discipline that pays off

None of this is difficult. It is simply a discipline: comply with the contents requirements, serve properly and provably, and count the working days from the moment of service. That discipline is what stops a good claim being lost on a technicality — and it is why we review payment claims before they are served, not after the trouble starts.