The payment response has a ten working day window
A payment claim starts a clock. The payer has ten working days to serve a payment response, and what they do inside that window decides how much of the claim survives to the payment date.
QScope Team · 5 March 2026 · 6 min read
CIPAA 2012 pairs the payment claim with a payment response. Once a payee serves a claim, the payer has ten working days to answer it. That default window is the spine of the Malaysian payment regime, and everything about how much gets paid, and whether an adjudication is worth starting, turns on what the response says and whether it arrives in time.
What the response does
Inside the ten working days the payer can take one of three positions on the sum claimed.
- Admit it. The claimed amount is accepted and becomes payable under the contract payment term.
- Dispute it. The payer states the amount they propose to pay and the reasons for withholding the rest.
- Reduce it. A partial admission, with the disputed balance and the grounds set out.
The reasons matter. A response that disputes a sum without saying why gives the adjudicator little to weigh, and an adjudicator is entitled to prefer the party who showed their working.
Counting the ten working days
The window is counted in working days, not calendar days, so weekends and public holidays drop out of the count. That cuts both ways. A payer who assumes calendar days will serve late, and a payee who assumes calendar days will chase early and get the timing wrong. Start the count on the working day after service and step forward ten working days, excluding rest days and gazetted holidays.
Response and payment are different dates
The ten working days fix when the response is due. They do not fix when the money is due. The payment term comes from the contract, and on Malaysian building work it is commonly around thirty days from the claim or the certificate. So the sequence is: claim served, response within ten working days, payment on the contractual due date. Two clocks, running from the same start, and a payee needs both diarised.
When the payer says nothing
If no payment response is served, the claim is unanswered. The payee has not been told which parts are admitted and which are disputed, and the route open under CIPAA is adjudication of the payment dispute. A payer who ignores the window does not make the claim go away, they simply lose the chance to shape it and hand the payee a clean run at the Act.
Serve the response, state the figure, give the reasons, and do it inside ten working days. It is the cheapest way to keep control of the number.
QScope logs the service date of every payment claim and counts the ten working days for you, so the payer deadline and the payment date are never guessed.