Unpaid construction works

The work is finished, or nearly, and the invoices keep coming back — disputed, put on hold, or answered with complaints nobody raised while you were on site. For a contractor, a subcontractor or a supplier, money owed on a project is usually money already spent on labour and materials, and every month it stays unpaid is financed from your own resources. Waiting rarely helps: the longer a debt sits, the more counterclaims it attracts and the less there may be to collect.

Recovering it is seldom a matter of a single reminder. The claim has to be documented, the client’s defences answered and the right procedure chosen for the amount and the kind of dispute involved. Much depends on:

• the rules on drawing up the final account, and on what a client’s silence or late objection to it means;
• the rules on formal notice, default interest and recovery costs, and on when each begins to run;
• the rules on set-off, when an invoice is answered with a counterclaim for defects or delay;
• the rules on a subcontractor’s direct claim against the client when the main contractor does not pay;
• the rules on retention of title to materials, and on keeping possession of the works until the price is paid;
• the rules on the security a contractor may demand or register for its price, from a payment guarantee to a charge over the land;
• the rules on summary proceedings and payment orders for a debt that is not seriously disputed;
• the rules on proving the quantity and value of the work when the client contests the amount;
• the rules on the client’s insolvency — lodging the claim, and what can still be recovered from the project.

Our lawyers can support you with this.