Can an email be a valid Pay Less Notice?
It can be, but it depends on your subcontract's notices clause, and the email must still say what a Pay Less Notice must say.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
The answer
Read the clause for the email address or platform it names, who may send notices and when a notice counts as received. Where section 115 of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 applies and the parties have not agreed how notices are sent, any effective means will do. So a subcontract that says nothing about email does not settle the question either way. The email still has to state the sum and how it was worked out. Keep the message, the attachment, the email headers and any receipt. If service or effect is disputed, have the notice and the subcontract checked rather than treating email as automatically valid or invalid.
Example
Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.
The facts
A document headed Pay Less Notice arrives by email. It states £33,000 and shows its calculation. Your subcontract names recorded post to the registered office and says nothing about email.
What happens
- You save the email before doing anything else with it.
- You compare the notices clause with the route used and the time it arrived.
- You record what the notice says and how it was sent as two separate questions.
The outcome
The content and the service questions are reported separately. Nothing in the record yet says whether the notice works.
To have the service of a notice tested against your subcontract's notices clause, see our Underpayment Claim service.