Application for Payment

An application for payment is the contractor\'s or subcontractor\'s request for a stated sum, made under the contract at the intervals the contract prescribes, which triggers the certification and payment machinery.

The application does two jobs at once. It asks for money, and it starts the clocks: the payment notice period, any pay less notice window, and the final date for payment all run from it. A late or defective application can unwind an otherwise sound claim, which is why the discipline of issuing them on time, to the right address, in the right form, matters more than the argument that follows.

Valuers write applications; contracts judge them. An application that does not show its build-up invites a notice that pays less simply because nobody could check the number. The best applications read like a valuation with the arithmetic left in.

Related: payment notice · pay less notice · interim valuation