What is the notified sum?
The sum stated in whichever notice operates for that payment cycle: the Payment Notice, or the application in its place if no Payment Notice was given.
Updated: 15 September 2026. By Jack Butler-Kettle, Quantity Surveyor & Claims Consultant.
The answer
The notified sum is the amount that the operative notice for a payment cycle says is due. Where the payer gives a valid Payment Notice in time, that notice fixes it. Where the payer gives none and the contract makes the payee's application a default notice, the application fixes it. Under section 111 of the Construction Act the payer must pay the notified sum on or before the final date for payment unless a valid Pay Less Notice, served in time, states a lower sum, in which case that lower sum is what must be paid. The notified sum is not a valuation of the work; it is a figure produced by the notice machinery, which is why a payer who misses both notices can owe the full application whatever the work was worth, and why the true value is a separate question resolved separately.
Example
The situation
An application of £96,000 goes in on the contract's date. The contract allows five days for a Payment Notice and sets a final date for payment, before which any Pay Less Notice must arrive.
What happens
- The application for £96,000 is issued on the contract's date.
- No Payment Notice arrives within the five days the contract allows.
- No Pay Less Notice arrives before the final date for payment.
The outcome
The notified sum is £96,000 and it is payable in full on the final date for payment. Whether £96,000 was the right value of the work is a different dispute and does not change what fell due that month.
The Notified Sum Audit reads every past cycle for sums that fell due and were never paid.