Further to our law-now on this subject issued on 20 June 2007, the DTI has clarified that the proposal to align the format and content of the Payment Notice and the Withholding Notice (contained within Chapter 2.3 of the Consultation Document) is in order to avoid the unnecessary issue of two notices when one (covering both payment and withholding) should be sufficient under the Construction Act. The intention is to make clear in the Act how a Payment Notice can also act as a Withholding Notice.
If an effective Payment Notice has been issued a separate Withholding Notice will only be required if it becomes apparent before the latest date for the issue of a Withholding Notice that additional sums need to be withheld from the sum identified in the Payment Notice as due to be paid.
If a Payment Notice is not issued within the notice deadline, the intention is that the statutory fallback will make the amount in a claim by the payee become due, subject to withholding. The payer will then have until the withholding notice deadline to issue a Withholding Notice. This would be in the same format as for a Payment Notice.
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Law-Now information is for general purposes and guidance only. The information and opinions expressed in all Law-Now articles are not necessarily comprehensive and do not purport to give professional or legal advice. All Law-Now information relates to circumstances prevailing at the date of its original publication and may not have been updated to reflect subsequent developments.
The original publication date for this article was 22/06/2007.
