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Security of Payment in the Northern Territory: the deadlines a subcontractor works to

Every date below comes from the Construction Contracts (Security of Payments) Act 2004 (NT), and each one shows the section it comes from so you can check it. The contract can set an earlier date than the Act in places, and the Act wins where the contract is later than it allows.

For the actual dates on your claim, put the day you served it into the deadline calculator.

How long does the builder have to answer a payment claim in the Northern Territory?

Notice of dispute due, if they dispute the claim10 business days

From service of the payment claim.

A notice of dispute rejects or disputes the claim, so a payment dispute arises and the 65 working days to apply for adjudication start the next day (NT s 8, s 28).

NT Sch 1 cl 6(2)(a) (implied where the contract is silent)

When does a subcontractor's payment fall due in the Northern Territory?

Payment due (implied term, contract silent)20 business days

From service of the payment claim. Implied term shown, for a contract with no written term on payment. A contract term later than 30 working days after the claim is read as 30 working days (NT s 13).

NT Sch 1 cl 6(2)(b)

What can a subcontractor do in the Northern Territory if no payment schedule comes back?

The Act has no second-chance notice. Go straight to the adjudication windows below that run from the due date.

How long does a subcontractor have to apply for adjudication in the Northern Territory?

Adjudication application (claim rejected or disputed)65 business days

From receipt of the payment schedule. Counted from the day you received their notice of dispute. A payment dispute can also arise earlier, on any rejection of the claim; the 65 working days run from whichever came first.

Apply late and the adjudication right for this claim is lost.

NT s 28(1), (3)

Adjudication application (claim not paid when due)65 business days

From the due date for payment.

Apply late and the adjudication right for this claim is lost.

NT s 28(1), (3) with s 8(a)(ii)

Which days are not business days under the Security of Payment Act in the Northern Territory?

Weekends and public holidays, and the Act itself takes out 25 December to 31 December (NT s 4 (working day)), 1 January to 7 January (NT s 4 (working day)).

Not legal advice. These are statutory defaults. Verify every date against the relevant Security of Payment Act and your contract.

Business-day counting excludes weekends, the Act-specific December/January shutdown, New Year’s Day, Australia Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Anzac Day, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, plus the substitute weekday where New Year’s Day, Australia Day, Christmas Day or Boxing Day falls on a weekend. Anzac Day is substituted in Queensland when 25 April falls on a Sunday, as it is in the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory, and in Western Australia when it falls on either a Saturday or a Sunday. State and territory public holidays are modelled for New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. State public holidays counted here: Easter Saturday, Easter Sunday, Anzac Day (observed), May Day, King’s Birthday, Picnic Day. Not counted: the regional show days (Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, Katherine, Darwin and Borroloola). The Northern Territory counts a working day by reference to a public holiday "in the place in which any relevant act is to be done" (s 4), and we do not know which region your site and the builder are in. A deadline near it can fall a day later than shown.

On a real job, you do not type any of this

YourCA reads your head contract, works out the dates it puts on you and warns you before each one closes: claim day three days out, a variation notice window two days before it shuts, their payment schedule the day it is late. Every figure shows the clause it came from.

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