If the contractor does not submit sufficient substantiation with the application for payment, does the clock stop ticking on the 5 days to issue the certificate? or does the Employers Agent have to make their own assessment?
Clause 4.7 requires the Contractor to make an application which states the sum due and the basis on which that sum has been calculated. Provided the Contractor does that, then the Employer has to make an assessment.
There is no further requirement, or any requirement for the information to be ‘reasonable’ and so as long as an application is made that satisfies the above, then the payment process commences.
The risk to the Contractor of providing insufficient information is that the Employer may assess the value of an item to be nil.