The payment claim is where the statutory clock starts
Under the Construction Industry Security of Payment Ordinance, an interim valuation is not just a commercial exercise. It is the payment claim that triggers every deadline that follows.
QScope Team · 2 April 2026 · 6 min read
The Construction Industry Security of Payment Ordinance (Cap. 652) came into force on 28 August 2025. It applies only to contracts entered into on or after that date, so the first question on any Hong Kong job is which regime the contract sits under. Once the Ordinance applies, the interim valuation stops being a private calculation and becomes a payment claim with legal consequences.
What a payment claim carries
A payment claim is the claiming party’s statement of what is due for the period. It sets out the amount claimed and enough detail to show how the figure was reached. On a HKIA standard form or a government GCC contract the underlying valuation logic is familiar, work done, materials, variations, and retention, but the document that leaves your desk is now the trigger for a statutory response.
- Cumulative value. Value the works to date, then deduct what was certified before. The claim is the movement, not the whole job restated.
- Variations included. Instructed changes belong in the claim for the period they are valued, not held back for a final reckoning.
- Retention shown. Deduct retention on the line so the net claimed figure is the sum the paying party must respond to.
Serving it fixes the dates
The date you serve the payment claim is the date that matters. From it, the paying party has thirty days to issue a payment response, and the Ordinance sets sixty days as the statutory backstop for the payment itself. Miss the record of when the claim went out and you cannot prove either deadline. Serve it loosely, by an email nobody logs, and the clock is running without you watching it.
Why the discipline pays
In Hong Kong there is no VAT or GST to complicate the figure, so the amount claimed is the amount claimed, gross equals net. That simplicity is a gift only if the rest is tight. A payment claim that is clear on value, dated, and served on record is the foundation the whole cycle rests on.
The claim that is vague, undated, or slipped into a long email thread is the one that unravels when the response is late and you need to show exactly when the thirty days began.
The habit
Treat every interim valuation as a payment claim from the first month, log the service date, and diary the response and payment deadlines from it. The Ordinance rewards the party who counts from a fixed point, and punishes the one who guesses.
QScope builds the interim valuation and outputs it as a payment claim, then dates the payment response and the sixty day backstop from the day it was served.