The payment response is the answer the clock demands
A payment claim under the Ordinance is not a request that can be ignored. It puts the paying party on a thirty day timer to say what it accepts, what it disputes, and why.
QScope Team · 4 April 2026 · 6 min read
The Construction Industry Security of Payment Ordinance (Cap. 652) sets up a two step mechanic. The claiming party serves a payment claim. The paying party issues a payment response. The response is due within thirty days of the payment claim, counted in calendar days, and it is the document that turns a claimed figure into an admitted or disputed one.
What the response has to do
A payment response states the amount the paying party proposes to pay against the claim. Where that figure is lower than the amount claimed, the response has to show the difference and explain it. It is not enough to write down a smaller number and stop. The reasons are what allow the claiming party, and later an adjudicator, to see where the disagreement actually sits.
- The response amount. The sum the paying party accepts as due for the period.
- The reasons for any shortfall. Line by line where the claim is cut, whether on measurement, rate, or entitlement.
- The date. Issued and served on record, so the thirty days can be shown to have been met.
The link to payment
The payment response does not stand alone. The Ordinance sets sixty days as the statutory backstop for the payment to fall due, so the response sits inside that longer window. On HKIA and government GCC contracts the certification machinery still runs, but the Ordinance overlays a statutory floor that the contract cannot cut below for contracts caught by Cap. 652.
When the response is late or absent
A paying party that lets the thirty days pass without a proper response has given up its chance to put its case on paper before the money question crystallises. There is no VAT or GST in Hong Kong, so there is no tax line to hide behind, the dispute is purely about value and entitlement, and the party that stayed silent has to argue those from behind.
The discipline for both sides
If you serve claims, diary the response deadline the moment the claim goes out and chase it the day it lapses. If you respond to claims, treat thirty days as short, because it is, and build the response while the valuation is fresh rather than in the last week. The Ordinance rewards the party that works to the calendar and exposes the one that drifts.
QScope tracks every payment claim against its response deadline, so a missing or late payment response is flagged before the thirty days run out.