The payment claim that starts the clock

Every month the quantity surveyor values the work in place, the materials on site and the variations agreed to date. That valuation is useful on its own, but under the Construction Contracts Act 2002 it only carries weight once it goes out as a payment claim.

What the claim has to contain

A payment claim is not a loose invoice. To do its job under the Act it must identify the contract, state the amount claimed for the period, show how that amount was worked out, and state the due date for payment. Leave any of those out and the payer can argue the claim never triggered the response regime at all.

• The value of work in place. Measured against the schedule of prices or remeasured where the contract calls for it.
• Materials and plant. On site, and off site where the contract allows, valued and evidenced.
• Variations. Priced and included as they are instructed, not held back to a later account.

Why the claim is cumulative

Interim payments are on account, so each claim states the gross value of everything done to date, then deducts what has already been certified and any retention. That structure is what lets an over-valuation in one month be corrected in the next. Nothing is lost, it is simply carried and adjusted on the following cycle.

The response you are waiting for

Once the claim is served, the payer has to respond with a payment schedule. Where the contract is silent, the Act gives the payer twenty working days to provide that schedule. If none arrives, the amount in the payment claim becomes the sum due and payable in full. That is the single most important reason to get the claim right the first time.

Under NZS 3910:2023 the Engineer to the Contract sits in the middle of this, assessing the work and issuing the payment schedule on the principal behalf. The claim you serve is what the Engineer has to measure against, so the clearer your build-up, the faster and cleaner the schedule comes back.

The discipline

Serve on the same date each month, keep the build-up transparent, and diary the response deadline the moment the claim goes out. A claim that is easy to check is a claim that gets paid, and a claim that is properly served is a claim that has to be answered.