How long can a builder take to pay a subcontractor in New South Wales?

What the NSW Act actually requires

Under the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 (NSW), you can serve a payment claim for work performed, and the builder must respond with a payment schedule within 10 business days (or any shorter period your contract sets). The schedule must say what they'll pay and why anything is withheld.

If no schedule arrives in time, the claimed amount becomes a debt due in full, and the builder is barred from raising its reasons at adjudication. Head contractors must pay subcontractors within 20 business days of the claim, retention money on larger projects must be held in trust, and work can lawfully be suspended after non-payment on two business days' notice.

What the market actually does

Across the Australian subcontracts we've analysed, the median stated payment term is 25 days from claim to cash - and the worst drafting we see stretches past 45 calendar days by running terms from end of month or from the builder's own payment certificate rather than from your claim.

The trigger matters as much as the number. A term that runs "from the payment certificate" puts the clock in the builder's hands; the position to ask for is payment within a fixed number of days from a valid payment claim.

What to check before you sign

Find the payment clause and read three things: the number of days, what starts the clock, and any preconditions to payment - statutory declarations, executed documents, warranties. Preconditions operate as payment holds even where the timing itself is lawful.

Pay-when-paid clauses - where the builder's obligation to pay you depends on being paid upstream - are void in every Australian jurisdiction. They still appear in drafting; they are unenforceable.

Clause-by-clause risk report against New South Wales security of payment law in about 90 seconds.

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