Hi,
Does a payless notice need to consider the value of work completed up to the date the notice is issued? Or does the notice only consider the amount due at the assessment date?
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Hi, I would say in most cases that it is up to the assessment date because that is what the PM should have taken account of when assessing the amount due and what has been certified, also it is presumably what the notice to pay less is changing in some way?
Happy to discuss.
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Yes under the 2009 amendments it does say “the sum that the payer considers to be due on the date the notice is served”, unfortunately the author hasn’t included any references to any authority to support how they have interpreted it.
Under a contract where there are set assessment dates and the amount due is set out as the PWDD plus or less other amounts, as is the case under NEC3 50.2, the payer is probably looking at grounds to pay less because they think something should not be paid that has been included within the notified sum which is assessed at an assessment date.
The author is saying that the payer must also take into account the amount due for work done between the assessment date and the date of the notice to pay less, it would be good to get an authority on this.
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Hi Steve,
Yes, exactly this. My thoughts are that the payee may end up getting paid more than the notified sum if the payer considers work completed from the assessment date to the date the notice is served. This surely cannot be correct. Or can it?
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Hi, yes I noticed that the author concluded that also, but surely the clue is in the title of the notice “pay less”? As far as I know the Employer does not have to give a notice to pay more. May be there is case law on this and perhaps someone can provide more information.
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