Operating under an NEC3 option B Contract.
Completion has been achieved and currently in the twelve month period before the issue of the End of Defects Certificate.
Contractor has issued a valuation during this period. Slight disagreement between assessment of amount due so a pay less notice was to be issued by the PM. There was a slight delay in the issue of the pay less notice so Contractor is claiming they are due the full amount applied for.
Before completion the timeframe for valuations and issue of payment certificates is clear and therefore the final date for issuing a pay less notice is also clear. However, as there are no set dates for payments after completion and before end of defects, how is the date for issuing the pay less notice determined?
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The period during which payment assessments are made is from the starting date until four weeks after the Defects Certificate is issued (NEC3 ECC) or the Defects Certificate is issued (NEC4 ECC).
There is also an additional payment assessment at Completion of the whole of the works under NEC3 only.
As the payment assessments continue after Completion, the contract procedures continue to apply in the same way, in accordance with section 5 and as amended by Y(UK)2, in accordance with the timescales in your contract.
If the Contractor gave a compliant payment application and there was no corresponding certificate then I would suggest the application becomes the ‘default’ notice for payment and should be paid by the final date for payment, unless a valid notice to pay less than this sum was given, which you say wasn’t the case.
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Just to add to Andrew’s reply if the payment period is unclear in the contract the periods stated in the Scheme (via the Construction Act) will apply with the period starting from their submission