Payment notices and pay less notices: the dates that decide whether a contractor can short-pay your trade invoice

A common story on the trades forums goes like this. You finish a stage of work for a main contractor, send your invoice, and a week after the payment date the contractor pays £800 less than you claimed, with no explanation. Many owners assume the contractor can do that if it feels the work was short. For most commercial construction work in England and Wales, the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 (the Construction Act) says it cannot do it freely. It has to give notices, on dates, in writing. If it misses them, the sum you claimed can become the sum that is due.

This guide is about the dates. It uses the default rules, called the Scheme for Construction Contracts, which apply when your contract has no payment terms of its own, or has terms that do not meet the Act. Your contract may set different periods, so read it first.

Does it cover your job?

Part II of the Act does not apply to a contract "with a residential occupier". Section 106 defines that as a contract which principally relates to operations on a dwelling that one of the parties occupies, or intends to occupy, as their residence. So a homeowner who hires you to rewire their own house is outside the Act. For those customers, see our guide on what to do when a customer won't pay for work done.

A subcontract is different. If you are an electrician or plasterer working for a builder or main contractor on a house, neither you nor the contractor lives there, so the exclusion, as written, does not obviously reach you. We read that from the wording of section 106 and have not tested it in a court, so if the sum is large, ask a construction solicitor.

The four dates

The Scheme works out four dates from one starting point, the payment due date.

1. Due date. The later of 7 days after the end of the period the invoice covers, or the day you make a written claim.
2. Payment notice. The contractor must give you one no later than 5 days after the due date. It must state the sum it thinks was due and how it worked that out. Section 110A says that sum can be zero.
3. Pay less notice. To pay less than the notice said, the contractor must give a further notice no later than 7 days before the final date for payment (paragraph 10 of the Scheme).
4. Final date for payment. 17 days after the due date (paragraph 8).

Worked example

You send a £4,800 application for payment on Saturday 31 October 2026, the last day of the period.

We counted calendar days. The Act treats short periods differently where weekends and bank holidays fall, so if a deadline is close, check it.

The contractor wants to pay £4,000, not £4,800. To do that lawfully it needs to give a notice by 12 November stating £4,000 and the basis, or a pay less notice by 17 November for the £800. If it gives neither, there is a strong argument it must pay the full £4,800 by 24 November, whatever it thinks of the work.

If the contractor says nothing

Section 110B lets you step in. If the contractor's payment notice never comes, you can give your own, stating the sum you consider due and the basis for it. The final date for payment is then postponed by the number of days your notice was late. In our example, a notice from you on 15 November is 3 days after the 12 November deadline, so the final date moves from 24 to 27 November. Send yours early, because every day costs you a day.

The exception: if your contract let you send your sum and its basis before the contractor's deadline and you did, that already counts as your notice, so you cannot send a second one.

Adjudication

If the money is still short, section 108 gives you the right to refer a dispute to adjudication. The contract must aim for the adjudicator to be appointed and the dispute referred within 7 days of notice. The decision is due within 28 days of referral, extendable by 14 days with your agreement, and it is binding until a court or arbitrator decides otherwise. That is far quicker than a county court claim, though the pre-action debt protocol does not cover construction debts, as our unpaid invoice step guide notes.

What to do now

• Put your claim dates in writing and keep the sent email. The due date can depend on your claim.
• Say what the sum is and how you worked it out. Use our invoice template and keep CIS deductions on a separate line; see the CIS deduction calculator.
• Diary the 5-day and 7-day dates the day you send the invoice.
• If the contractor is late with notices, write on the day, citing section 110B.
• Interest and a fixed fee can also be due; see late payment interest for builders.

Overlyft can set up an AI assistant that diarises the notice dates for every application you send, drafts the reminder or section 110B notice for you to check, and flags the 24 November-style final date.

This is general information, not legal advice.