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How to Write an Application for Payment (UK Construction)

What an application for payment is, when it is due under JCT, NEC and the Scheme, what to include, and how it becomes the notified sum when the payer fails to issue a payment notice.

Overview

An application for payment is the document a contractor or subcontractor uses to say what it considers due for a payment cycle, and to show how that figure was arrived at. It is not a request for a favour and it is not an invoice. Under the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 it is one half of a statutory notice mechanism, and if the payer misses its side of that mechanism the application itself can become the sum that must be paid. That is why the way an application is written and dated matters as much as the arithmetic inside it.

Key Takeaways

  • An application states what you consider due at the due date and shows the basis of calculation. Both halves are required.
  • Every date on the cycle hangs off the payment due date — establish it before you write anything.
  • Where the payer fails to notify, section 110B(4) can make your application the notified sum on its own — but only where the contract let you apply at that point and you did so in accordance with it.
  • JCT reaches the same result contractually: no certificate means the application becomes the payment notice.
  • Most rejections are documentation faults — late submission, missing instruction references, unsigned dayworks.

The application writes itself when the evidence is already on the job

Site Samurai assembles each application for payment from the measured valuation, the instructed variations and the signed daywork sheets already recorded against the project, carries the previously certified figure forward automatically, and shows the valuation date, due date and final date for payment on the record. When a certificate does not arrive, the dates are already in front of you rather than buried in a mailbox.

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What an application for payment is — and what it is not

The Act distinguishes two notices. Section 110A(2) covers a notice given by the payer; section 110A(3) covers a notice given by the payee. Both must specify the sum the giver considers to be, or to have been, due at the payment due date, and the basis on which that sum is calculated. An application for payment is the payee-side document. A payment notice is normally the payer-side response certifying what it will actually pay. Confusing the two is the most common misreading of the whole mechanism.

  • The application states what you consider due at the due date, and shows the calculation.
  • The payment notice is the payer’s answer, stating what it considers due and why.
  • A pay less notice is a third, later document under section 111 — it reduces a sum that has already been notified.
  • An invoice is a tax and accounting document. It does not carry the statutory notice effect on its own.
  • The basis of calculation is not optional decoration. A figure with no workings behind it is a weak notice.

When the application is due

Timing comes from your contract first, and from the Scheme for Construction Contracts only where the contract fails to provide a compliant mechanism. Every date on the cycle hangs off the payment due date, so establish that date before anything else. Our NEC vs JCT payment timelines guide sets the three regimes side by side; the summary below is the short version.

  1. JCT SBC/Q 2016: the due date is 7 days after the relevant Interim Valuation Date, the interim certificate is issued within 5 days of the due date under clause 4.9, the final date for payment is 14 days from the due date, and a pay less notice must come not later than 5 days before the final date.
  2. NEC4 ECC: the project manager assesses at each assessment date, certifies within a week of it and pays within three weeks, with the periods stated in Contract Data — read your own Contract Data rather than assuming the defaults.
  3. The Scheme: the due date is the later of 7 days after the relevant period or the making of your claim, the final date for payment is 17 days from the due date, the payer’s notice is due within 5 days of the due date, and a pay less notice not later than 7 days before the final date.
  4. Under the Act generally, a payment notice must be given not later than five days after the payment due date, whichever regime applies.
  5. Submit on the valuation date, not after it. A late application shifts the whole cycle and can push your money a month down the line.

What to include

The application-for-payment template on this site lays these out as a working document with the arithmetic already wired up. What follows is what each line is for. Keep every line traceable back to a reference the payer can check without emailing you.

  • The gross valuation of work executed to the valuation date, measured against the contract sum or bill.
  • Materials on site, and off site where the contract allows it.
  • Variations, each as its own line with the instruction reference against it.
  • Dayworks, priced from signed sheets, each with the sheet number.
  • Less the total previously certified, so the figure claimed is the movement this cycle, not the cumulative total.
  • Less retention, at the contractual percentage, shown as its own line.
  • The net sum applied for, and the basis of calculation behind it.
  • VAT, or a domestic reverse charge statement where the reverse charge applies — check your own VAT position before stating it.
  • The valuation date, the due date and the final date for payment, printed on the face of the document.

The notified sum, and what happens when the payer says nothing

Section 111 requires the payer to pay the notified sum by the final date for payment unless a valid pay less notice has been given. Section 110B then deals with the case where the payer simply fails to notify, and it offers two different routes. Under subsections (2) and (3), where the contract required the payer’s notice within five days of the due date and no notice was given, the payee may give a notice complying with section 110A(3) at any time after the date the payer’s notice was due — and the final date for payment is then regarded as postponed by the same number of days that the payee’s notice was late. Subsection (4) is the better outcome and the one worth engineering for: where the contract permits or requires the payee to notify the payer before the date on which the payer’s notice was due, and the payee gave such a notice in accordance with the contract, that earlier notice — your application — stands as the payee’s notice under section 110B. Nothing further is needed, and there is no postponement of the final date, because you were never late.

  • Route one, subsections (2) and (3): no notice from the payer, so you notify late and the final date moves back by however late you were.
  • Route two, subsection (4): your contract lets you apply before the payer’s notice falls due, you applied in accordance with it, and that application already is your notice.
  • Route two only works if the contract permits or requires the payee to notify at that point and you complied with it. Check the mechanism says so before relying on it.
  • A compliant application made in time under route two can become the notified sum without you doing anything further, and without moving the payment date.
  • JCT builds the same result into the contract: if no certificate is issued, the contractor’s payment application becomes a payment notice under clause 4.10.2.
  • That effect only exists if the application specified the sum considered due and the basis of calculation.
  • A pay less notice can still cut the sum, but it must be given by the contractual deadline and must state its own basis.
  • Diarise the payer’s notice date. The remedy only helps if you notice the silence in time to act on it.

Two worked cycles

A Scheme cycle, because bespoke subcontracts are where the defaults actually bite. A subcontract has no compliant payment mechanism, so the Scheme fills the gap. The relevant period ends on 30/11/2026 and the subcontractor makes its claim on 03/12/2026. The due date is the later of the making of the claim and seven days following the relevant period, so 07/12/2026. The payer’s notice is due by 12/12/2026 and the final date for payment is seventeen days from the due date, 24/12/2026, with any pay less notice due not later than seven days before that, 17/12/2026. Nothing arrives by 12/12/2026, and Christmas swallows the rest of the month. The application for payment template on this site carries a JCT-cycle example if that is the regime you are on.

  • An NEC cycle starts from the assessment date rather than a valuation date, and its periods come from Contract Data rather than a standard default.
  • Say Contract Data sets assessment dates on the 18th and the parties are at 18/01/2027. The project manager assesses at that date, certifies within the certification period stated in Contract Data, and payment follows within the payment period stated there.
  • Compensation-event quotations agreed during the cycle move into the project manager’s assessed amount, rather than sitting outside it as a separate claim.
  • On both regimes the arithmetic is secondary. Establish the due date first, then work forward to the notice dates and backwards from the final date for payment.

Why applications get rejected

Rejections cluster around a small set of avoidable faults. Most of them are documentation faults rather than valuation disagreements.

  • Submitted after the valuation date, so it belongs to the next cycle.
  • No basis of calculation, so the figure cannot be checked or defended as a notice.
  • Variations claimed with no instruction reference behind them.
  • Dayworks claimed on unsigned sheets.
  • Previous certified figures that do not reconcile with what was actually certified.
  • Retention calculated on the wrong base, or double-deducted against the previously certified line.
  • Materials off site claimed where the contract does not allow it.

Sources

The statutory and standard-form timings on this page were checked against the sources named below before publication. Contract particulars override every default here, and clause numbering differs between contract editions. This is general information, not legal advice.

  • Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996, Part II, ss.109–111 (as amended by the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009) — legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/53/part/II
  • Scheme for Construction Contracts (England and Wales) Regulations 1998, Schedule Part II, paragraphs 4, 8, 9 and 10 — legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/649/schedule/part/II
  • JCT, "JCT explains: interim payments" (SBC/Q 2016 clauses 4.9 and 4.11) — corporate.jctltd.co.uk/jct-explains-interim-payments/
  • NEC4 ECC clauses 50.1, 51.1 and 51.2 and secondary Option Y(UK)2, as summarised by HKA, "How to get your NEC4 ECC pay less notice right under Y(UK)2" — hka.com

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Last reviewed: 2 September 2026

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How to Write an Application for Payment FAQ

It is the payee-side notice under section 110A(3) of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996. It specifies the sum the contractor or subcontractor considers due at the payment due date and the basis on which that sum is calculated. It is not an invoice, and it is not the payer’s payment notice.
They sit on opposite sides of the same mechanism. The application is given by the party seeking payment and states what it considers due. The payment notice is normally given by the payer and states what the payer considers due and why. Under the Act a payment notice must be given not later than five days after the payment due date.
Section 110B applies, and it gives two separate routes. Under subsections (2) and (3), where the payer was required to notify within five days of the due date and did not, the payee may give a section 110A(3) notice at any time afterwards — but the final date for payment is then postponed by the same number of days the payee’s notice was late, so payment moves back. Under subsection (4), where the contract permits or requires the payee to notify before the payer’s notice falls due and the payee gave such a notice in accordance with the contract, that earlier application stands as the payee’s notice. No second notice is needed and there is no postponement. Which route you are on depends on what your payment mechanism actually says, so read it before assuming the better one.
Under JCT SBC/Q 2016 the due date is seven days after the relevant Interim Valuation Date, the interim certificate follows within five days of the due date under clause 4.9, and the final date for payment is fourteen days from the due date. A pay less notice must be given not later than five days before the final date. Check your own contract particulars — these are the standard-form defaults, not a universal rule.
The gross valuation to the valuation date, materials on site, variations with their instruction references, dayworks with signed sheet numbers, the total previously certified, retention as its own line, the net sum applied for, the basis of calculation, and the VAT or domestic reverse charge position. Print the valuation date, due date and final date for payment on the face of it.
The payer can dispute the valuation, but it must do so through the notice mechanism rather than by simply refusing. If the payer considers less is due it issues a payment notice; if it wants to pay less than a sum already notified it must issue a pay less notice by the contractual deadline, stating its own basis of calculation. Silence is not a rejection — it is what triggers the default route under section 110B.

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