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The Construction Contracts Co.
Subcontract Risk Scanner
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The Australian Subcontract Index

What's actually in the subcontracts Australian subbies are asked to sign, measured from real contracts run through the free Subcontract Risk Scanner.

90 contracts, ACT, NSW, NT, QLD, SA, VIC, WA. Updated 2026-10-21. Grows with every scan.

100%
have time bars that extinguish the claim entirely
A missed notice window doesn't just delay the claim. The clause kills it. The market-normal alternative is a notice requirement, not an absolute bar.
66 of 66 contracts
97%
allow set-off without notice
The builder can deduct from your payment without telling you first or substantiating why. Market position: written notice and 5 to 10 business days.
75 of 77 contracts
78%
have liquidated damages with no cap
Exposure is unlimited. Market position: LDs capped at 5 to 10% of the subcontract sum.
31 of 40 contracts
88%
include termination for convenience
The builder can end the contract without cause. The clause is market-common. What matters is whether it pays for work done plus demobilisation.
72 of 82 contracts
25 days
median payment terms
From payment claim to money in the bank, as drafted. Statutory caps in several states sit at or below this, and can't be contracted out of.
75 contracts
$1,500/day
median liquidated damages rate
Within the $1,500 to $2,500/day band considered reasonable for mid-size commercial work. The risk is rarely the rate, it's the missing cap.
48 contracts
5%
median retention
Held from progress payments. 5% combined is the market-normal cap; twice that until practical completion is a red flag.
65 contracts
The State of Australian Subcontracts, September 2026The full report: seven findings, charts, methodology and a citable PDF.

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Methodology

Statistics are extracted from subcontracts analysed by the Subcontract Risk Scanner, de-duplicated so a document scanned more than once counts once, with test traffic excluded. A clause is only counted where the contract states it explicitly ("not identifiable" is never treated as a no), and any measure with fewer than 10 qualifying contracts is withheld. Aggregates only: no contract, party, project, or business is identifiable, consistent with our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Cite freely with a link to this page.

Citing this data

The Index is licensed CC BY 4.0. Quote any statistic freely in articles, posts, papers or reports. Always carry the sample size alongside the number, and cite as: The Australian Subcontract Index, The Construction Contracts Co., review.theconstructioncontracts.co/benchmarks. The figures on this page update automatically as the corpus grows. For a stable reference, cite a monthly snapshot instead of archiving your own, or the dated September 2026 report. Journalists and researchers can request custom cuts: mat@theconstructioncontracts.co.