Chapter2 short sections

Notices of non-payment

The written shield

Part 1

Can't pay an invoice? Say why in writing, inside your window.

A notice of non-payment records your position: it names the amount you're withholding and your reasons. Missing a notice deadline can leave the amount payable under the applicable prompt-payment rules; the invoice and upstream facts determine which clock applies.

The window is not one number. It depends on which form you're sending, and Tiercord grades each one on its own rule. Ontario prescribes named forms, which Tiercord uses as the working model everywhere:

Form 1.1, owner-to-contractor non-payment. 14 days from the day the proper invoice reached you. This is the dispute window, and it's the only one of the three that runs on 14 days.
Form 1.2, contractor passing an owner's non-payment down to a sub. 7 days from the day the owner's notice reached you, measured from that notice and not from the invoice. With no owner's notice in hand there's nothing to pass through, so the date that governs is the day you must pay from your own funds: day 35 or day 42 from the owner-invoice date, depending on province and your position in the chain.
Form 1.3, contractor disputing a sub's invoice on your own grounds. The same day 35 or day 42 from the owner-invoice date.

Alberta (Forms 1 to 5 under AR 51/2002) and Saskatchewan (Forms A.1 to A.6 under its Builders' Lien Regulations) have numbered forms of their own, which Tiercord prints; Manitoba uses its prescribed Forms 1–5 under M.R. 113/2024.

Part 2

Form 1.2 has a twist

If the owner didn't pay you, and you're passing that down to your subs, you must promise, in writing, to challenge the owner within 21 days. That promise is called an undertaking to adjudicate, and the contractor must give it where the governing statute requires it.

One twist inside the twist: a subcontractor passing its contractor's non-payment further down must check its province’s exception before omitting the undertaking. Where it traces back to the owner, Ontario (s. 6.6(6)(a)(iii)), Alberta and Saskatchewan may excuse the undertaking. Manitoba also requires evidence that the contractor undertook to adjudicate the owner dispute; British Columbia does not provide that exception.

Tiercord enforces this rule. Where the undertaking is required, no undertaking, no save, and we schedule that 21-day clock for you the moment the notice is issued.

Issue a notice

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