Progress Claim Ignored? How SOPA Adjudication Gets Subcontractors Paid Without Going to Court

Progress claim four went in at the end of the month, same as the first three. Claims one to three were paid, slowly. Claim four is now 45 days old and nobody at the builder’s office will say why. No dispute letter, no defects list, no “we’re withholding for X”. Just nothing. You’ve heard about adjudication but assumed it was for big contractors with lawyers on retainer.

It isn’t. Adjudication under the Security of Payment Acts was designed for exactly this: a subcontractor with a clean claim and a head contractor using silence as a financing strategy. No courtroom, no barrister, no discovery. You send documents, they send documents, an adjudicator decides. In most states the whole thing runs from payment claim to enforceable determination in about six to eight weeks.

Your rights

Every Security of Payment Act creates a two-track system. Track one is the statutory debt: if the respondent doesn’t serve a payment schedule in time, the full claimed amount becomes payable and you can go to court for summary judgment with the builder unable to argue the contract. Track two is adjudication: an independent adjudicator, nominated by an Authorised Nominating Authority (the QBCC registry in Queensland, a prescribed appointer in the Northern Territory), decides how much is payable. You can adjudicate whether the builder scheduled less, scheduled the right amount and didn’t pay, or never scheduled at all.

The decision binds on an interim basis: the builder must pay within a few business days, and if they don’t you file the adjudication certificate in court and it becomes a judgment. They can fight the underlying contract later, but they pay you first. Pay now, argue later. You also have the right to suspend work on short written notice without being liable for the delay.

The timeline, step by step

1. Day 0: serve the payment claim. On the party liable under your contract, stating the work, period, amount and (outside Queensland) that it’s made under the Act.
2. Day 10–15 (business days): payment schedule deadline. The builder schedules the full amount, schedules less with every reason written down, or does nothing.
3. Due date. Fixed by the contract or the Act’s default (10 to 25 business days after the claim depending on state and contract tier).
4. Adjudication window opens. Short schedule: 10 business days from receiving it in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory; 20 in Western Australia; 30 in Queensland. No schedule: New South Wales, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory need a notice of intention within 20 business days after the due date, a 5-day second chance, then 10 business days to apply; Victoria and Tasmania have similar notices; Western Australia and Queensland allow 20 or 30 business days after the due date.
5. Application lodged with the ANA or registry. Your claim, the contract, the schedule (if any) and a submission. An adjudicator is nominated within days.
6. Response: 5 to 15 business days. Confined to the reasons already in the payment schedule.
7. Determination: about 10 business days after the response.
8. Payment or judgment: 5 business days. Unpaid determinations become judgments on filing the certificate.

By state

• New South Wales. Security of Payment Act 1999. Schedule: 10 business days. Claim window: 12 months from last work. Adjudication (ANA): 10 business days after a short schedule; 20 after the due date; s 17(2) notice route if no schedule. Debt: Local, District or Supreme Court.
• Victoria. Security of Payment Act 2002 (amended 15 April 2026). Schedule: 10 business days. Claim window: 6 months. Adjudication (ANA): 10 business days; s 18(2) notice with a 5-day second chance if no schedule. Timeframes pause 22 December to 10 January. Debt: Magistrates’, County or Supreme Court.
• Queensland. BIF Act 2017. Schedule: 15 business days. Claim window: 6 months. Adjudication (QBCC Adjudication Registry): 30 business days after a short schedule or after the due date with no schedule; 20 where the scheduled amount is unpaid. Debt: Magistrates, District or Supreme Court after a s 99 warning notice.
• Western Australia. Security of Payment Act 2021. Schedule: 15 business days. Claim window: 6 months. Adjudication (ANA): 20 business days from a short schedule or the due date; review adjudication for larger claims. Debt: Magistrates, District or Supreme Court.
• South Australia. Security of Payment Act 2009. Schedule: 15 business days. Claim window: 6 months. Adjudication (ANA): 10 business days after a short schedule; 20 after the due date; s 17(2) notice route if no schedule. Debt: Magistrates, District or Supreme Court.
• Tasmania. Security of Payment Act 2009. Schedule: 10 business days (20 residential). Claim window: 12 months. Adjudication (ANA): 10 business days after a schedule; 20 after the due date; s 21(4) second-chance notice if no schedule. Debt: Magistrates or Supreme Court.
• Australian Capital Territory. Security of Payment Act 2009 (amended 2024). Schedule: 10 business days; payment due within 15. Claim window: 12 months. Adjudication (ANA): 10 business days after a short schedule; 20 after the due date; s 19(2) notice route. Debt: Australian Capital Territory Magistrates or Supreme Court.
• Northern Territory. Construction Contracts (Security of Payments) Act 2004. No schedule; payment due 28 days after the claim if the contract is silent, and a payment dispute arises on rejection or non-payment. Adjudication (prescribed appointer): within 65 working days of the dispute; response 15 working days. Enforced in the Local or Supreme Court.

The Claim Done document asks your state first and drafts the claim, warning and suspension notice to that state’s deadlines.

What to do right now

1. Check whether what you sent was a payment claim. An invoice without the Act’s words (outside Queensland) never started the clock. Serve a proper claim now for the next available month, rolling in every unpaid amount.
2. Write the dates down. Schedule deadline, due date, adjudication window, notice-of-intention deadline. A day late and the fast track closes.
3. Prepare the adjudication bundle while you wait. Contract or accepted quote, every claim and schedule, signed timesheets or dockets, variation approvals, photos, correspondence. If the builder schedules, you may have only 10 business days to lodge.
4. Serve the notice of intention to suspend when the due date passes. Two business days’ notice in most states. Builders notice when the crew doesn’t turn up and they’re liable for the delay.
5. Pick your track. No schedule and a clean claim: court for the statutory debt is often faster. Schedule with reasons you can rebut: adjudicate. Either way, act inside the window.

What the builder can and can’t argue at adjudication

This is the part that makes adjudication work for subbies. The respondent’s response is confined to the reasons in their payment schedule. “The work was defective”, “we haven’t been paid by the client”, “there’s a set-off for delay”: if it wasn’t in the schedule within the 10 or 15 business days, the adjudicator must ignore it. In most states, if no schedule was served at all, the respondent cannot respond. The payment claim forces the builder to commit, in writing, on a deadline, to every reason they have, and locks them out of the ones they think of later.

Who to complain to

For adjudication: an Authorised Nominating Authority such as Adjudicate Today or Resolution Institute (New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory), the QBCC Adjudication Registry (Queensland), or a prescribed appointer such as Master Builders Northern Territory (Northern Territory). For enforcement: file the certificate or sue for the statutory debt in the Magistrates or Local Court, or the District/County or Supreme Court above their limits.

Start the adjudication clock — $49

Claim Done drafts a Security of Payment Claim for your state that starts the schedule clock, sets out the due date and every deadline that follows, warns the builder that unscheduled reasons are lost, and includes a notice of intention to suspend work for you to serve once the due date passes.

Serve My Payment Claim — $49 →

You review every word before it’s sent.