The payment timetable, in plain terms
Four dates, one of which can cost you the difference between what you valued and what they asked for. Here is what each one is and how the days are actually counted.
QScope Team · 6 November 2025 · 6 min read
The Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996, as amended in 2009, sets a payment timetable that applies to almost every construction contract in the UK. It applies whether or not your contract mentions it, because where a contract falls short the Scheme for Construction Contracts fills the gap.
Most surveyors know the shape of it. What causes trouble is the counting, and one notice in particular.
The four dates
1. The due date
The date on which a payment becomes due. Your contract sets it, usually by reference to a valuation date or an application. Everything else is counted from here, which is why getting it wrong makes every date after it wrong too.
2. The payment notice
The payer, or a person specified in the contract such as the contract administrator, must give notice of the sum they consider due, and the basis on which it is calculated. Under most JCT forms this is due within five days of the due date.
Note the second half of that sentence. A figure alone is not a payment notice. Section 110A requires the basis of the calculation as well, which is why a certificate carrying only a total is weaker than one carrying the valuation behind it.
3. The final date for payment
The date by which the money must actually be paid. Typically 14 days after the due date under JCT and NEC, and 17 days under the Scheme.
4. The pay-less notice
If the payer intends to pay less than the notified sum, they must say so before the final date for payment. Under JCT that is at least five days before; under the Scheme, seven.
That is the consequence people underestimate. It is not a penalty or a discretionary sanction. The money simply becomes payable, and an adjudicator will enforce it in what the industry calls a smash and grab. Whether the underlying valuation was right is a separate argument, fought later and at your cost.
How the days are counted
This is where hand counting goes wrong, and it goes wrong in a predictable way.
The periods are counted in calendar days, but the Act excludes days that are not business days when calculating certain periods, and contracts frequently define business days as excluding weekends and public holidays. The practical result is that an August due date and an Easter due date do not behave the same way.
| Contract form | Final date for payment | Pay-less notice |
|---|---|---|
| JCT SBC and Design and Build | Due date plus 14 | Not later than 5 days before |
| JCT Intermediate and Minor Works | Due date plus 14 | Not later than 5 days before |
| NEC3 and NEC4 ECC | Due date plus 14 | Not later than 7 days before |
| Scheme for Construction Contracts | Due date plus 17 | Not later than 7 days before |
Always check the particulars of your own contract. Amended forms are common, and a bespoke payment period overrides the standard one. What does not change is that the pay-less deadline is counted backwards from the final date for payment, so if the final date moves, so does the deadline.
Why this belongs in the software, not the diary
A competent surveyor can count these dates. The problem is not competence, it is repetition across a portfolio. One job is easy. Nine jobs across three surveyors, with due dates that move when a valuation slips, is where a notice goes missing. It is never the project you were thinking about that morning.
The other reason is proof. If a payment notice is later disputed, the question is when it was prepared and by whom. A record created automatically at the time carries more weight than a recollection reconstructed afterwards.
A short checklist
- Confirm the contract form, including any amendment to the payment period
- Fix the due date, and re-derive the other three whenever it moves
- Issue the payment notice with the basis of calculation, not just the total
- Diary the pay-less deadline separately from the final date for payment
- Keep a record of when each notice was prepared and issued
None of this is complicated. It is simply unforgiving, and it is unforgiving on the one occasion in the year when you are busy.
Enter a due date and QScope returns all four dates for your contract form, with weekends and UK bank holidays already excluded, and prints them on the certificate.