Description

In this webinar, Andrew Croft (Beale & Company) and Stephen Milne (Beale & Company) speak about non-payment and recent issues considered by the TCC.  They are joined by Rob Driscoll (Building and Engineering Services Association) who considers an innovative approach to tackling late payment by “digitising the payment process”.

Non-payment remains one of the biggest issues in the construction industry, with sums continuing to remain unpaid for significant periods on no proper basis and without proper notice. This is an industry wide issue, as evidenced by the introduction of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 which gained Royal Assent in March 2015 and aims to introduce prompt payment reporting and by the number of cases in the Technology & Construction Court (“TCC”) dealing with payment issues.

We are therefore taking this opportunity to provide an update on these recent developments, looking at some of the pitfalls for both payees and payers, together with further practical tips aimed at ensuring that you remain well placed to deal with non-payment, however it occurs.

The recent flurry of TCC cases since our previous webinar provide useful “dos and don’ts” as to when and how to serve notices in order to maximise your chances of payment. A key message is that, in the absence of a valid pay less notice, the sum notified is the sum payable – the payer is not entitled to argue for a lower value in response to your claim for payment.

Recent issues considered by the TCC and which will be looked at in this webinar include:

• the sum due in the absence of a valid pay less notice;
• confirmation that the notified sum is the amount payable in the absence of a pay less notice;
• the meaning of construction operations when determining whether the Construction Act applies;
• when payment notices should be issued, including the dangers of issuing notices early;
• the grounds on which a party may be relieved of its payment obligations following adjudication; and
• implied contract terms entitling a party to recover overpayments following adjudication (even after limitation periods have expired).

Please click on the following link for a PDF of the Payment Webinar Slides.

To view a recording of the seminar, please click on the video below.