What is a default Payment Notice, and does it change the payment date?
It is the notice you can send when your main contractor misses its Payment Notice, and yes, sending it late moves the final date for payment back.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
The answer
The rules are in section 110B of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996. They only apply once your main contractor was required to give a Payment Notice under section 110A and failed to. There are then two possibilities.
Your application already counts as the notice
Your subcontract allowed or required you to apply before the notice deadline. The application had to state the sum you expected to be due and how you worked it out. You applied the way the subcontract requires. Your application then counts as your notice under section 110B(4). You send nothing more, and the final date for payment does not move. Calling a document an application is not enough on its own.
No application qualifies
Once your main contractor's deadline has passed, section 110B(2) lets you send your own notice. It must state the sum you consider due at the payment due date and how you worked it out. Section 110B(3) then moves the final date for payment back by the number of days between your main contractor's deadline and the day you send your notice.
Does sending it on day 6 delay payment by 6 days?
No. Say your main contractor's deadline is day 5 after the due date, no application qualifies, and you send your notice on day 6. The final date moves by 1 day: 6 minus 5. If it was day 19, it becomes day 20. It is not 6 days counted from the due date. Check your own dates, counting rules and proof of sending before you rely on this arithmetic.
Can your main contractor still send a Pay Less Notice?
It may. Missing the Payment Notice deadline does not by itself close the Pay Less Notice route. Check which notice counts, any new final date and the Pay Less Notice deadline. A Pay Less Notice does not cancel your application or decide what the work is worth. Keep the notice question separate from any argument about the valuation. And a missed notice alone does not mean a smash and grab adjudication will succeed.
Before you rely on it
All of this applies where section 110B applies. Your subcontract's wording, any amendments and where the job is all matter. Northern Ireland has its own legislation. The case of Placefirst Construction Ltd v CAR Construction (North East) Ltd [2025] EWHC 100 (TCC) shows why the actual emails and letters matter. For a live, disputed notice or deadline, take advice on the actual documents before you act.
The two possibilities under section 110B
| Where you stand | What follows under section 110B |
|---|---|
| Your application already counts as the notice | It is treated as your notice under section 110B(4). You send nothing more, and the final date for payment does not move. |
| No application qualifies | Once your main contractor's deadline passes, you can send your own notice under section 110B(2). Section 110B(3) moves the final date back by the days between that deadline and your notice. |
Example
Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.
The facts
Your main contractor's Payment Notice deadline is day 5 after the due date. None of your applications qualifies as the notice, and the final date for payment is day 19.
What happens
- You send your own default notice on day 6, stating the sum and how you worked it out.
- The final date moves by the gap between day 6 and day 5: 1 day.
- The new final date for payment is day 20.
The outcome
The final date moves from day 19 to day 20. Before relying on the dates, you check your subcontract, its counting rules and your proof of sending.
Where a deadline is urgent, Underpayment Claim checks the route and prepares the notice for you to send.
Sources
- Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996, s 110B (Payment notices: payee’s notice in default of payer’s notice). legislation.gov.uk.
- Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996, s 110A (Payment notices: contractual requirements). legislation.gov.uk.
- Placefirst Construction Ltd v CAR Construction (North East) Ltd [2025] EWHC 100 (TCC) (High Court, Technology and Construction Court, 24 January 2025). The National Archives, Find Case Law.