Pay Less Notice

A pay less notice is the notice a paying party must give when it intends to pay less than the sum applied for or certified, stating both the sum it considers due and the basis for it — miss it, and the full applied sum becomes payable.

Where it sits: HGCRA 1996, s.110A-111(3), as amended 2009. The final date for the notice is the contract\'s prescribed period before the final date for payment; the Scheme default is effectively nil if the contract is silent on procedure.

This is the sharpest document in the Construction Act\'s drawer. If the paying party fails to serve a valid pay less notice in time, the sum in the application or payment notice becomes the sum due for the interim — right or wrong — and the only argument left is recovery afterwards. The adjudication reports are full of employers who had a genuine pricing point and no notice to carry it.

Validity has teeth of its own: the notice must state the sum considered due and the basis. In RBH v James [2026] EWCA Civ 511 the Court of Appeal confirmed the test is tolerable clarity — a number with reasoning that can be understood and answered, not a holding position.

→ Service: Final Account Disputes