We're referring an underpayment to adjudication and don't know how the 28 days run
The notice of adjudication is going in and nobody has mapped the timetable.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
For the standard timetable in outline, see how long construction adjudication takes.
What's happening?
Adjudication is the fast way to get a construction payment dispute decided, usually within 28 days of the referral. Under Part I of the Scheme for Construction Contracts (England and Wales) Regulations 1998, the timetable runs from the actual documents. Those are the notice of adjudication, the appointment, the referral and the adjudicator's directions. It does not run from a standard calendar.
Several documents may arrive together, and each may have its own deadline, recipient or consent. The parties may agree an extension, or the adjudicator's directions may change the order. Arguments about jurisdiction, service or appointment can also move the dates. A rule of thumb remembered from the last one is not safe.
Miss a date and a document may go in late, or your figures may not be ready when the referral goes in. What you need is one accurate worksheet, owned by whoever is conducting the adjudication for you, with every document, recipient, consent and deadline on it.
The solution
Map the timetable from the actual notice of adjudication, the appointment, the referral and the adjudicator's directions. Put every document, recipient, deadline and consent in one worksheet. Have it confirmed by whoever is conducting the adjudication for you, and work to it.
Underpayment Claim builds the money side to that timetable. That means the figures for each part of the underpayment, a schedule the adjudicator can follow line by line, and the bundle index. We deliver them by an internal deadline set ahead of the referral date. The procedure stays with your representative.
Example
Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.
The facts
A cladding subcontractor serves its notice of adjudication on the 1st of the month, over £68,000 of measured work and variations left out of its Payment Notices. The adjudicator is appointed on the 5th and the referral goes in on the 8th. Directions the same day set a response by the 22nd and a reply by the 29th.
What happens
- The timetable is mapped on one page from the actual documents. Each row shows the document, the recipient, the deadline and who is responsible.
- The schedule of figures and the bundle index are finished 2 days before the referral date, so the representative has time to check them.
- The decision is due 28 days after the referral, on the 6th of the following month. If the subcontractor agrees the 14-day extension, it moves to the 20th.
- The reply on the 29th deals only with what the main contractor's response raised.
- The adjudicator asks for the extension on the 4th of the second month, and the subcontractor agrees it in writing.
The outcome
The decision arrives on the 18th of the second month, 2 days inside the extended date of the 20th. It awards £61,000 of the £68,000.