How to submit an application for payment that gets paid

An application for payment is your claim for the value of work done to date under a construction contract. Send it on or before the date your subcontract sets, to the named person, showing the cumulative value, variations, retention, previous payments and the sum now due. If the contract is silent, the Scheme for Construction Contracts makes payment due 7 days after the period ends and final 17 days later.

What goes in an application for payment?

The QS checks your application against their own valuation. Make theirs easy to agree with by laying it out the way they'll check it.

What does a worked valuation look like?

Here's an interim application for a first and second fix electrical package on a care home extension, valued at the end of November 2026.

Always apply cumulatively. If application 3 was under-valued, the next cumulative figure picks the shortfall up without you having to argue about the old one.

Keep one tracker per job showing PO, invoiced, outstanding and final account. An application process starts from the same record: if you know what you've claimed and what's been paid on each package, the next application takes minutes.

Which payment dates does the law give you?

Most construction contracts in the UK fall under the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996, known as the Construction Act. It says the contract must have an adequate mechanism for working out what's due and when, and a final date for payment. If the contract doesn't, the Scheme for Construction Contracts fills the gap.

Contracts with a homeowner for work on the home they live in are excluded. For a job expected to take under 45 days, the Act's right to stage payments doesn't apply, though the contract can still provide for them.

Applied to application 4, valued to Monday 30 November 2026 and sent the same day:

Your subcontract will usually set its own dates. Read them, because they override the Scheme where they're compliant with the Act. In this example the final date lands on Christmas Eve, which is worth knowing about before the office shuts.

What if they don't send a payment notice?

Where the contract requires the payer to send a payment notice and they don't, the Act lets you send your own notice, and your application may already count as one if the contract says so. The final date for payment then moves back by the number of days your notice was late. After that, the sum you notified is payable unless they send a valid pay less notice in time. For the notices themselves, see payment and pay less notices.

Writing the cover note

Send the application by the method the contract names, to the named person, and keep the proof. A short covering email helps the QS and creates a clear record of the date.

Subject: Application for payment 4, package, project name

Dear QS name,

Please find attached our application for payment 4 for package at project name, subcontract ref ref, valued to 30 November 2026.

Gross value to date: £33,600.00
Less retention at 3%: £1,008.00
Less previously paid: £18,600.00
Sum applied for: £13,992.00 plus VAT under the reverse charge

The valuation includes variation 03 (external lighting), instructed on date. Marked-up drawings, photos and signed day sheets are attached.

Under the subcontract the payment due date is 7 December 2026 and the final date for payment is 24 December 2026. Please let me know by date if anything in the valuation needs discussing so we can agree it before your payment notice.

Kind regards,
Name
Company, phone

What can you do if you're still not paid?

Under section 112 of the Act, if the notified sum isn't paid by the final date, you can suspend some or all of your work after giving at least seven days' written notice that states the grounds. The right ends when they pay in full, they must pay your reasonable costs of suspending, and any completion date moves by the time lost.

You can also claim statutory interest at 8% plus the Bank of England base rate if the contract has no interest clause, and refer a dispute to adjudication. Get a construction solicitor or claims consultant to check your notices before you suspend, because a wrongful suspension can put you in breach. The Commercial Payments Bill now in Parliament would also change the rules on retentions; see what the late payment reforms mean.

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