Time bars in Victoria subcontracts: what you lose, and when

How the clause actually works

The typical drafting makes notice a condition precedent: no notice in time, no entitlement - regardless of merit, regardless of whether the builder caused the delay. Notice windows in the contracts we've analysed run as short as 2 business days for variations and cluster around 5 business days for extensions of time.

The trap isn't the paperwork, it's the trigger: the clock usually runs from when the delay or direction occurred, not from when its cost became clear. A site conversation doesn't stop it. Only written notice in the form the contract requires does.

What Victoria law does and doesn't rescue

The Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 2002 (VIC) can't be contracted out of: your right to serve a payment claim, and the builder's obligation to answer it with a payment schedule within 10 business days, survive whatever the contract says. Since the 15 April 2026 reforms, disputed variations and time-related costs can generally be included in a payment claim too - pre-reform guidance that they were excluded no longer applies to new claims.

The habit that beats the clause

You won't negotiate every time bar out. The operating fix is a standing habit: written notice the day anything changes - a delay starts, a direction lands, scope moves - before the ute leaves site. One short email that anchors the date, flags the claim, and says the formal notice follows.

Before signature, the positions worth asking for: a longer window (10 business days is defensible; builders have accepted more), notice as a requirement rather than a bar, and one notice per event rather than rolling updates.

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

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