How long do you have to issue a Pay Less Notice?

Until the prescribed period before the Final Date For Payment, the last day the money can lawfully arrive. A Pay Less Notice lets a payer pay less than the sum otherwise due, and the contract sets how long before the Final Date For Payment it must be in; where the contract is silent, the Scheme for Construction Contracts requires it not later than 7 days before. So find the Final Date For Payment for the round, subtract the period, and check the small print: whether the contract counts calendar or working days, and how it treats a notice landing out of hours. A late notice is not merely discounted, it counts for nothing: the full Notified Sum, the amount that legally must be paid, becomes payable and enforceable through adjudication, the fast 28 day dispute process. Serving a day early every round is the simplest way clear of that risk.

A contractor's Final Date For Payment to a flooring subcontractor is Wednesday the 24th. On the 7 day default in calendar days, the notice must be in by Wednesday the 17th, so one arriving on the 18th counts for nothing and the full Notified Sum, imagine £55,000, is payable and enforceable in adjudication. But the same contract might count working days, or treat a notice received after 5pm as served the next day, either of which pulls the real deadline earlier than the 17th. So the surveyor works out the date, checks how days are counted, and aims to serve on the 16th, a day early, so an out of hours or weekend quirk cannot turn a notice she thought was in time into a worthless one.