Construction · Construction fee-earner, employer's agent, contractor's commercial team
Check a payment notice under a JCT contract
A contractor on a school project says the employer owes the full application because no valid pay less notice was served. The run works the payment cycle out against the contract dates and states what is due and when.
The problem
Step 01 of 05
Put the payment documents on the matter
The contract particulars, the interim application, the payment notice, the disputed pay less notice and the covering emails are uploaded with their timestamps.
Project Halcyon: SPA warranties and disclosure
Buy-side warranty review, disclosure analysis and cited due-diligence grid.
- Client
- Halcyon Bidco Ltd
- Reference
- WC-2026-0412
- Practice area
- Corporate / M&A
- Jurisdiction
- England and Wales
- Responsible partner
- E. Vance
No conflict check on file.Chat, on this matter
Compare warranties with the disclosure letter.
Three high-priority exceptions require action: the unregistered charge, the change-of-control right and the tribunal claim.
Send a message… (@ to mention tools)BalancedPrepare for- 25 Aug
Disclosure exceptions matrix
Chat
- 21 Aug
Disclosure exceptions matrix
Run · completed · 560 credits
- 18 Aug
Project Halcyon: Disclosure Letter
Document · indexed
- 16 Aug
Project Halcyon: Share Purchase Agreement
Document · indexed
- 4 Aug
Matter opened
Opened
Step 02 of 05
Run the cycle
Prepare for: Work-Stream Memo. The instruction asks for the due date, the final date for payment and the last date for a pay less notice, each calculated from the contract particulars.
Agent
Jurisdiction
Prepare for
Deliver as
Instruction
What should the agent look for?Documents
Drop a contract, or pick one from the matter
Also on the matter
- Offer_letter_v3.pdf2 pages
- Staff_handbook_2025.docx61 pages
- Board_minute_14_Aug.pdf3 pages
Platform model · zero data retention · audit register onStep 03 of 05
Read the service analysis
The pay less notice was sent by email on the correct day but to an address the contract does not specify for notices, which the memo treats as the live issue rather than the valuation.
6 items need your confirmation14 authorities · Where we lookedSenior Associate Employment Contract: English Law Review
Summary
- 1.
Clause 9(c), non-competeHigh
The 12-month prohibition on working for any law firm anywhere in the UK, Ireland or EU, in any capacity, is almost certainly wider than reasonably necessary and therefore unlikely to be enforceable.
Tillman v Egon Zehnder Ltd [2019] UKSC 32 - 2.
Clause 11, data and monitoringHigh
Blanket contractual consent is not an adequate basis for general employment processing, special-category data or unrestricted monitoring.
UK GDPR, Arts 6 and 9 - 3.
Clause 4, holiday carry-overHigh
The unconditional five-day cap conflicts with mandatory carry-over rights where sickness, statutory leave or employer failure prevents leave being taken.
Working Time Regulations 1998, regs 13 to 13A
- 1.
Step 04 of 05
State the consequence
If the notice was not validly served, the notified sum becomes payable on the final date, and the memo sets out both positions with the wording behind each.
6 items need your confirmation14 authorities · Where we lookedSenior Associate Employment Contract: English Law Review
Summary
- 1.
Clause 9(c), non-competeHigh
The 12-month prohibition on working for any law firm anywhere in the UK, Ireland or EU, in any capacity, is almost certainly wider than reasonably necessary and therefore unlikely to be enforceable.
Tillman v Egon Zehnder Ltd [2019] UKSC 32 - 2.
Clause 11, data and monitoringHigh
Blanket contractual consent is not an adequate basis for general employment processing, special-category data or unrestricted monitoring.
UK GDPR, Arts 6 and 9 - 3.
Clause 4, holiday carry-overHigh
The unconditional five-day cap conflicts with mandatory carry-over rights where sickness, statutory leave or employer failure prevents leave being taken.
Working Time Regulations 1998, regs 13 to 13A
- 1.
Step 05 of 05
Take the next steps
Action items cover the notice provisions to check in the contract particulars, the email evidence to preserve and the decision on paying under protest.
Replace the UK/Ireland/EU non-compete with a 3 to 6 month restriction tied to competing corporate-law work.
Replace blanket data consent with a lawful-basis clause and a separate monitoring notice.
Remove the five-day carry-over cap and reference the statutory carry-over rules.
Narrow the client non-solicit to clients dealt with in the final 12 months.
Add an explicit working-time opt-out withdrawal mechanism.
Confirm the bonus clause states the discretion is exercised in good faith.
What comes back
A document, not a transcript.
- The three payment dates calculated from the contract particulars, each with the clause that produces it.
- A service analysis of the pay less notice against the contract's own notice provisions.
- Both positions stated with the consequence of each, rather than a single answer the employer wants to hear.
- Action items on evidence preservation and on the commercial decision about payment under protest.
Authorities it checks
- Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996, s 110A
- Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996, s 111
- JCT Standard Building Contract 2016
What it does not do
- It does not value the work. The notified sum is taken from the documents and the memo says so.
- It does not serve a notice or make a payment.
- It does not decide the service question where the contract particulars are incomplete on the file; it names what is missing.