Construction prompt-payment glossary

The vocabulary of Canadian construction payment law, defined plainly and cross-linked to the guides and provinces that go deeper.

Adjudicator: An adjudicator is a neutral decision-maker, appointed by the parties or a nominating authority, who issues a binding determination in an adjudication.
Authorized nominating authority: An authorized nominating authority is the body designated to administer construction adjudications and appoint adjudicators when parties cannot agree.
Construction adjudication: Construction adjudication is a fast, interim-binding process in which an adjudicator decides a payment dispute on a short statutory timetable.
Construction lien: A construction lien (builders' lien in some provinces) is a charge on improved land securing payment for work or materials, valid only if preserved in time.
Deemed proper invoice: A deemed proper invoice is an invoice that becomes a proper invoice by operation of law because the payer did not raise a defect within a short review window.
Interim-binding determination: An interim-binding determination is an adjudicator's decision that must be obeyed immediately but can still be revisited later by a court or arbitrator.
Notice of non-payment: A notice of non-payment is the document a payer must deliver within the dispute window to refuse all or part of a proper invoice, with specific reasons.
Pay-when-paid: Pay-when-paid is a contract clause tying a contractor's duty to pay its subcontractors to first being paid by the owner. Prompt-payment law restricts it.
Payment certifier: A payment certifier is the person, often the architect or engineer, authorized under a contract to certify the value of work for payment.
Prompt payment: Prompt payment is a statutory framework that makes construction payments flow down the chain on fixed deadlines, replacing open-ended pay-when-paid practice.
Proper invoice: A proper invoice is a written request for payment containing the information the statute and the contract require. It starts the owner-payment clock.
Statutory holdback: Statutory holdback is a share of each construction payment (commonly 10%) retained to protect lien claimants and released after the lien period expires.
Substantial performance: Substantial performance is the point at which a construction contract is essentially complete and ready for use, triggering holdback release and lien deadlines.
Tamper-evident audit trail: A tamper-evident audit trail is a chained record of compliance events secured so that any later alteration of the history is detectable.