Who can issue a Payment Notice?

The payer, or a specified person the contract names to give notices for the payer, such as the contract administrator, architect, employer's agent or quantity surveyor. A Payment Notice is the payer's statement of the sum it thinks is due for the round, and the power to give it comes only from the contract naming the person, so check the clause not the letterhead: a notice from a consultant with no notice giving role under the contract is open to challenge however accurate its figures. Some contracts flip this and make the payee give the Payment Notice; on those, the payer's only remaining protection is the Pay Less Notice cutting a sum down, which raises the stakes on serving that one correctly and on time.

A school extension is run under a contract naming the architect as the person who issues Payment Notices for the employer. If the architect serves a notice valuing a subcontractor's work at £70,000, it counts, because the contract gives her that role. But if a project manager the employer engaged separately, with no notice giving role in this contract, fires off a rival notice, it is open to challenge however tidy its figures, because authority comes from the clause not the job title. On a contract that makes the contractor issue the Payment Notice itself, the employer cannot rely on that step, so its only real protection is a well drafted Pay Less Notice served on time.