Racing to Meet Prompt Payment Deadlines Under the New Construction Act
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Racing to Meet Prompt Payment Deadlines Under the New Construction Act Robert Dziurdzik, B.A.Sc., EIT, BSS & Junmeng Liu, M.A.Sc., EIT, CPHC Pretium Engineering Inc.
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n the previous issue of Condo News (Spring 2020), Mark Giavedoni discussed some of the changes in the new Construction Act. This article aims to provide further discussions on one specific component of the new act: Prompt Payment. To recap, the Construction Lien Act (CLA) was updated and renamed the Construction Act (CA) on July 1, 2018. Under the amended Construction Act, there are several new provisions relating to Prompt Payment and the payment certification process which came into effect October 1, 2019. The intent of these provisions is to ensure that contractors and subcontractors receive payment in a timely manner and to help resolve payment disputes in a systematic way.
Proper Invoice With the new changes in the CA, contractor-submitted invoices need to comply with the definition of proper invoice. Previously, there was no definition of what an invoice must include, and the owner or authorized agent could review and/or reject a contractor’s invoice until it was mutually agreed upon. Under the CA, the contractor must submit a proper invoice, as specified in Section 6.1 of the act. The definition of a proper invoice includes the contractor’s name and address, date of the invoice, a description of the services/materials supplied, and the amount payable, among others. Additional requirements for what constitute a proper invoice can be added under each specific contract. This allows owners and their authorized agents some flexibility based on their specific requirements.
Condo News – SUMMER 2020
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