Claims a respondent can answer

A payment claim under the BIF Act is a written document that identifies the construction work, states the amount claimed and requests payment. Paystruct builds that document from your contract, checks what can be checked, and keeps the record of what went out and when.

Create an account See how the dates are worked out

Three requirements, and no decoration

The bar in s 68 is low, and claims still fall under it. The money is rarely the problem. The problem is that one of the three requirements was left to inference, or the work was described in a way the respondent could not price.

Identifies the construction work

s 68(1)(a)

The claim has to say what work the payment relates to, on its own face. Pointing at documents that were never served with it does not count.

States the claimed amount

s 68(1)(b)

One figure, stated as the amount claimed, with the GST position obvious. Where the summary and the schedule disagree, the respondent gets to choose which one to answer.

Requests payment

s 68(1)(c)

The document has to ask for the money. A document in the form of an invoice is taken to do so, but there is no reason to leave it implied when a line of text fixes it.

The endorsement is optional

Unlike the repealed BCIPA, the BIF Act does not require a claim to say it is made under the Act. Plenty of claimants still include the words. Paystruct prints them if you want them, and leaves them off if you do not.

Percentages are not a description

In KDV Sport Pty Ltd v Muggeridge Constructions Pty Ltd [2019] QSC 178 the claim was a single page. It listed 51 trade categories from the trade breakdown and put a percentage complete against each one. Nothing described the work actually done inside any trade, and nothing was attached. The Court held the document did not identify the construction work it related to, so it was not a valid payment claim, and the adjudication built on it fell with it. The amount claimed was $2.36 million.

The standard is practical rather than technical. A respondent has to be able to work out what is claimed and answer it in a payment schedule, without being sent on a research project through documents they do not hold. Percentages alone do not do that. Percentages against a described scope, with quantities and the period they cover, usually do.

Read the guides

The work in the words a foreman would use, not the trade heading on its own
Quantity and unit against the rate, so the arithmetic is visible
Where the work is: level, grid, zone, chainage or lot
The period the work falls in, and the reference date the claim is made from
The schedule of works reference the line came from
The variation number where a line is a variation, kept apart from contract works
A warning where a description is empty, boilerplate, or a bare trade name

Set the contract up once, then claim every month

The structure lives on the contract, so a claim is a period and a set of figures rather than a document rebuilt from scratch each month.

Create an account

Set up the contract

Parties, jurisdiction, the reference date mechanism, retention, service methods and the schedule of works. Upload the contract and have the terms read out of it, or enter them yourself.

Value the work

Enter progress as a percentage, a quantity or a dollar figure. Every line carries previously claimed, this claim and claimed to date, and the three reconcile as you type.

Bring the rest through

Variations, adjustments, retention and any release come through from the contract record rather than being retyped. They are parts of the claim, not separate paperwork.

Check it, then serve it

The claim is measured against the Act before it goes out, exported as a claim pack, served the way the contract permits, and the date, method and proof recorded against it.

Two kinds of question

Some questions about a claim are facts. Whether the reference date has arrived, whether another claim has already used it, whether the claim date sits inside six months of the day the work was last carried out. Paystruct answers those from the record, and shows its working rather than a tick.

The rest are judgements. Whether the work is identified well enough for this respondent on this job is one of them, and no amount of code settles it. Paystruct reads the claim the way a respondent would, tells you which lines are thin, and leaves the decision where it belongs.

What it cannot know: whether the work was really done, whether the contract you gave it is the contract that governs, whether the superintendent said yes on site, or whether the respondent is sitting on a back charge you have not heard about.

The reference date has accrued, and the claim is not dated before it
Only one claim on this contract is made for this reference date (s 75)
The claim falls inside six months of the day work was last carried out (s 75)
Work claimed belongs to this reference date rather than the next one
Line arithmetic reconciles, and no line is claimed above its value
A QBCC licence is recorded where the work is building work
Every finding is shown to you with the provision it comes from, never applied

A claim is rarely one page

What travels with the claim is part of the claim. Paystruct assembles the pack in the order the respondent expects, as one PDF, with the attachments appended rather than referred to.

Supporting statement

Since 1 October 2020 a head contractor giving a payment claim to a principal under a non residential contract must give a supporting statement with it, declaring that subcontractors have been paid or naming those who have not and why. Failing to give one carries a penalty of up to 100 penalty units. It does not make the claim invalid, and it is still not worth the argument.

Statutory declaration

Most head contracts and subcontracts require a declaration in support of the claim. Paystruct seeds the heading and jurat under the Oaths Act 1867 (Qld) and leaves the wording editable, because the form varies with the class of witness and most firms have a house version.

Schedule of works

The priced schedule the claim is measured against, with previously claimed, this claim and claimed to date on every line, so the respondent can assess line by line.

Variation register

Approved, unapproved and rejected variations with their status on the face of the register, so what is agreed and what is in dispute are not mixed together.

Supporting documents

Site instructions, dockets, approved variation orders, measurement sheets and photographs, attached to the claim rather than promised in it.

The service record

Method, date, time, time zone and proof, filed against the claim the moment it goes, which is what answers a respondent who later says nothing arrived.

Common questions

Does Paystruct serve the claim for me?

No. Paystruct builds the claim and exports the pack. You serve it, by the method your contract permits, from your own systems. You then record how and when service was effected, because every statutory period after the claim runs from that moment.

Can I claim an amount that was in an earlier claim?

Yes. The Act lets a payment claim include an amount that was the subject of a previous claim, which is how an unpaid item carries forward. What you cannot do is make a second payment claim for a reference date you have already used. Paystruct tracks which reference dates are spent and says so before you serve.

We are three months into a job that started on paper. Can we still start here?

Yes. Upload the claims you have already served and the schedules you have received. Paystruct builds the schedule of works and the claim history from them, and your numbering carries on where it left off, so the next claim is the number the respondent expects.

If every check passes, is my claim valid?

No software can promise that, and Paystruct does not. Validity turns on your contract, your facts and the Act. What the checks do is settle the questions that can be settled from the record, flag the ones that need your judgement, and keep the evidence of what was served.

Paystruct is software, not a law firm, and nothing here is legal advice. Where a claim is contested, where it is the final claim, where the contract has been terminated, or where adjudication is in prospect, get a construction lawyer involved early. The cost of advice at that point is small next to the claim.

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