The notice clock, running in the background
On a UK job the difference between paying what you assessed and paying what was applied for is one missed notice. QScope watches the dates so the deadline is never the thing that beat you.
QScope Team · 7 January 2026 · 6 min read
The payment provisions in the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 are unforgiving about dates and indifferent to good intentions. Miss the pay less notice and the sum you have to pay is the sum in the application, whatever your valuation said. QScope exists to make sure the date is never the thing that catches you out.
The two deadlines QScope watches
| Notice | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Payment notice, from the payer | Not later than five days after the due date (s.110A) |
| Pay less notice | Not later than the prescribed period before the final date for payment (s.111) |
The contract sets those periods. Where it is silent, the Scheme for Construction Contracts fills the gap: a final date seventeen days after the due date, and a pay less notice no later than seven days before that final date. QScope holds whichever set of periods your contract actually uses and counts from the due date it recorded on the valuation.
The default that catches the unwary
If no payment notice is issued, the payee application becomes the notified sum. There is no payment notice to argue about, because there is no payment notice. The applied figure stands, and the only escape left is a valid pay less notice served in time.
Counting the days the Act's way
Section 116 counts days as calendar days but excludes Christmas Day, Good Friday and bank holidays. A deadline that looks like the 27th on a wall calendar can fall on the 30th once the bank holidays are stripped out. QScope applies the section 116 rule when it counts, so the flagged date is the enforceable date, not an approximation.
Under JCT and NEC4
JCT builds the payment notice and pay less notice regime directly into its payment clauses. NEC4 runs its own assessment and certification timetable that still has to sit inside the Act. QScope maps the contractual labels onto the statutory deadlines, so whether the document is called an Interim Certificate or a Project Manager's assessment, the section 110A and section 111 clocks are the ones being watched.
The whole point is that the notice engine is boring. It flags the date, you issue the notice, nothing goes to adjudication over a missed deadline. Boring, on payment notices, is the win.
QScope tracks the payment notice window and the pay less notice deadline against each due date, and flags a missed notice before the payee application quietly becomes the notified sum.