Construction payment deadlines under prompt-payment law
Prompt-payment legislation replaces open-ended pay-when-paid practice with a chain of hard statutory deadlines. Each clock starts from a fixed, documented event, usually the day a proper invoice is received, and missing one can strip a payer of its right to dispute or expose it to interest and adjudication.
The pattern is consistent across the provinces that have enacted prompt payment, even though the exact day-counts and section numbers differ. Understanding the cascade is the difference between routine cash flow and a six-figure dispute.
The clock starts with a proper invoice
Nothing happens until a proper invoice is delivered. A proper invoice is a written request for payment that contains the information the statute (and the contract) requires. Once it is received, the owner's payment deadline begins to run.
Because the proper invoice is the anchor for every downstream deadline, the date it is received should be recorded and preserved. Tiercord timestamps that event and chains it to a tamper-evident audit trail.
Owner pays, or disputes, within the statutory window
After a proper invoice, the owner must pay within the owner-payment window or deliver a notice of non-payment within the shorter dispute window. A notice of non-payment that is late, incomplete or never sent generally means the invoiced amount becomes payable in full.
Payment cascades down the contractual chain
Once a contractor is paid, it has a short window to pass payment down to its subcontractors for the work covered by that payment. If the owner does not pay, the contractor must still pay its subs by a later backstop date, or deliver its own notice of non-payment together with an undertaking to refer the dispute to adjudication.
This is why a single missed clock at the top of the pyramid can ripple through every tier below it.
Payment deadlines, by province
The model above is common to the provinces that have enacted prompt payment. The law, its status and the exact day-counts, citations and forms are provincial. Pick yours:
Frequently asked questions
When does the prompt-payment clock start?
It starts when a proper invoice is received by the payer. If the invoice is missing required information, it may not qualify as a proper invoice and the clock may not start until the defect is cured.
What happens if the owner does not pay or dispute in time?
If no valid notice of non-payment is delivered within the statutory window, the invoiced amount generally becomes payable in full, with interest accruing on the unpaid balance.
Do I still have to pay my subcontractors if I have not been paid?
In most prompt-payment frameworks, yes, unless you deliver a proper notice of non-payment down the chain and undertake to refer the dispute to adjudication within the prescribed period.