Adjudication: The Legal Process Built to Get Subcontractors Paid (Most Never Use It)
There's a legal process built to get subcontractors paid in weeks, not years - and most subbies have never used it once. This is adjudication under security of payment law: the four-step sequence, the strict windows, and why it's won on paperwork months before the dispute exists.
Transcript
There is a legal process built to get subcontractors paid in weeks, not years. And most subbies have never used it once.
Adjudication. Under security of payment law, in every Australian state and territory.
It is not court. No lawyers required. No years of waiting. It was built for one thing. Cash flow.
Here is the sequence, start to finish.
Step one. A valid payment claim. The work identified. The amount claimed. Served on time, to the right party.
Step two. The builder answers with a payment schedule. Or doesn't. And silence, in most states, makes the full claimed amount a debt due.
Step three. If they schedule less than you claimed, you can take the gap to an adjudicator.
The windows are strict. In some states, ten business days from receiving the schedule. Diarise it the day the schedule lands.
Step four. The adjudicator decides. Typically within ten business days of accepting. On the documents.
And that is the point. Adjudication is won on paperwork, months before the dispute exists.
Site diaries. Delivery dockets. Notices. Emails that anchor dates. The subbies who win are the ones whose records were already in order.
The decision is binding for now. The builder pays. Or you can lawfully suspend work, and enforce it as a debt.
Most subbies never need to file. Because the builder who knows you can, pays differently.
Not being paid right now? Know your position under your state's Act. And know what you're signing.
General information about Australian subcontracts, not legal advice. Get advice on your own contract and facts.