Can Late Payment Prevention look at a subcontract before we sign it?
Yes: send it with the rest, and we tell you which terms to push back on while you can still negotiate them.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
The answer
We read it for the terms that decide when you are paid. That means the due date and what triggers it, the final date for payment, and any clause making payment depend on something further up the chain. It also means the interest the subcontract gives, and where the Construction Act fills the gaps. Each is set out in plain words, with where it sits in the subcontract. We read the version you are about to sign and its amendments, not the standard form. Where a clause's effect under the Construction Act is uncertain, we mark it for your solicitor rather than call it valid or void. For a subcontract already signed, we tell you how its terms will behave, and set up the chase, interest and suspension routine around them.
Example
Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.
The facts
A drylining subcontractor is sent a subcontract to sign. The final date for payment is 60 days after the due date, and the due date is tied to the main contractor's own certificate from the employer.
What happens
- The version to be signed and its amendments are read for the due date and its trigger, the final date and any upstream condition. The interest clause and suspension rights are read too.
- The 60-day final date and the upstream trigger are each set out in plain words, with where they sit in the subcontract.
- The subcontractor pushes back on the 60 days in writing before it signs.
- The upstream trigger goes to the subcontractor's solicitor as a question under the Construction Act, not called valid or void.
The outcome
The subcontractor signs knowing when each payment should land and which term needs its solicitor's view, instead of finding out on the first late payment.
To have a subcontract read for its payment terms before you sign it, see our Late Payment Prevention service.