What are the payment notice deadlines under JCT 2024?
By George Kershaw, Founder, ContraUpdated
Under the standard JCT 2024 position, the Payment Notice must be given not later than 5 days after the due date, the final date for payment is typically 14 days after the due date, and any Pay Less Notice must be given not later than 5 days before that final date for payment. Those are the default periods; JCT can be amended, so your Contract Particulars are what actually govern the dates on your contract. Miss the Pay Less Notice deadline and, under s.111 of the Construction Act, the main contractor owes the Notified Sum in full.
Key takeaways
- Payment Notice: not later than 5 days after the due date, stating the Notified Sum.
- Final date for payment: typically 14 days after the due date under JCT 2024.
- Pay Less Notice: not later than 5 days before the final date for payment, or the Notified Sum is due in full.
- Always read your Contract Particulars - JCT is routinely amended, and NEC4 runs different dates entirely.
The framework: the Act sets the rules, the contract sets the dates
The Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996, as amended by the LDEDC Act 2009 and known as the Construction Act, is the statute behind every payment notice on a UK construction contract. It does not, by itself, tell you the exact dates. It sets the framework - a due date, a Payment Notice, a final date for payment, and a Pay Less Notice - and requires your contract to fill in the specifics in a compliant way. If the contract fails to provide compliant machinery, the Scheme for Construction Contracts (SI 1998/649) supplies the missing terms by operation of law. JCT 2024 is one set of standard-form machinery that sits on top of that framework, and it is drafted to comply.
The JCT 2024 payment timeline
For interim payments, JCT 2024 runs to a monthly cycle. The standard position, measured from the due date, is as follows. Treat these as the JCT default and check them against your own Contract Particulars, because JCT is routinely amended and the Particulars are what govern:
- Due date - set in the Contract Particulars, recurring monthly through the interim cycle. Everything else counts from this date.
- Payment Notice (s.110A) - given by the payer not later than 5 days after the due date, stating the sum the payer considers due: the Notified Sum.
- Final date for payment - typically 14 days after the due date under JCT 2024. This is the day the money must actually be paid.
- Pay Less Notice (s.111) - if the payer intends to pay less than the Notified Sum, it must be given not later than 5 days before the final date for payment.
JCT 2024 also permits payment notices to be served by email, where the parties have opted in through the Contract Particulars. That opt-in matters: if email service has not been agreed, a notice fired off by email may not be validly served at all, and an invalid notice is no notice. Check the box, or serve by the method the contract actually prescribes.
The Payment Notice and the Pay Less Notice are not the same thing
These are two distinct notices under two distinct sections, and conflating them is how subcontractors lose money they were owed. The s.110A Payment Notice establishes the Notified Sum - the figure that becomes payable by the final date for payment. The s.111 Pay Less Notice is the only mechanism by which a main contractor can pay less than that Notified Sum, and it must be served before the final date for payment. If the main contractor wants to withhold, it needs a valid Pay Less Notice served in time. No valid Pay Less Notice, no lawful basis to pay less. The Notified Sum stands.
Why missing these dates crystallises the Notified Sum
The discipline of the Act is unforgiving by design, and that is the point in the subcontractor's favour. If no Pay Less Notice is validly served by the deadline, the main contractor must pay the Notified Sum in full on the final date for payment - regardless of what it later argues the work was actually worth. The argument about value does not disappear, but it moves to the back of the queue. You are paid first. Enforcement runs through s.108 adjudication: you can refer a dispute at any time, the adjudicator decides within 28 days, and the decision binds immediately. This is the pay now, argue later principle confirmed in Macob v Morrison [1999] EWHC 254 (TCC). A main contractor who let the Pay Less deadline pass cannot use the adjudication to relitigate value before paying; it pays the Notified Sum, then argues. That is leverage created entirely by the calendar.
None of this helps if you are not counting the days
The rights are only as good as the record behind them, and the deadlines are only as good as the person watching them. Specialist subcontractors run 65 to 80 days of DSO waiting on money that is already contractually due, and 3,827 UK construction firms went insolvent in the twelve months to March 2026 - specialist subcontractors more than half of the monthly count. Cash that is owed but uncounted is how firms with full order books still fail. Contra is built for exactly this. The Register™ holds every live Application for Payment across every main contractor in one place. The Clock™ runs the JCT 2024 dates on every AfP - due date, Payment Notice, final date for payment, and the Pay Less deadline - so nothing lapses because a spreadsheet fell out of date. When a Pay Less Notice deadline passes without a valid notice, that becomes Crystallised Entitlement™: the Notified Sum, now owed in full and ready to force. Every notice, date and figure is captured in The Record™, dated and admissible for adjudication. Draw Forward™ - same-day advance against a Notified Sum - is coming. Stop losing money to a calendar you are not watching. Request access.
This guide is general information on UK construction payment law, not legal advice. Payment terms vary by contract; take advice on your specific position.
About the author
George Kershaw · Founder, Contra
George Kershaw is the founder of Contra, which builds Construction Act payment and deadline tracking for UK specialist subcontractors. He writes on subcontractor payment rights, the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996, and construction adjudication.
Sources
Frequently asked
What is the difference between a Payment Notice and a Pay Less Notice under JCT 2024?
They are two distinct notices. The s.110A Payment Notice, given not later than 5 days after the due date, states the Notified Sum - the amount the payer considers due. The s.111 Pay Less Notice is the separate step a main contractor must take to pay less than that Notified Sum, and it must be served not later than 5 days before the final date for payment. One sets the figure; the other is the only lawful route to reduce it.
Can my contract change the JCT 2024 payment deadlines?
Yes. The periods above are the standard JCT 2024 position, but JCT contracts are routinely amended, and the dates that actually bind you are the ones in your Contract Particulars. Always read the Particulars for your specific contract. NEC4 is a different story again - it uses its own assessment dates and payment periods, so the JCT numbers do not apply to an NEC4 contract at all. Any machinery that fails to comply with the Construction Act is overridden by the Scheme for Construction Contracts.
What happens if the main contractor misses the Pay Less Notice deadline?
Under s.111 of the Construction Act, if no valid Pay Less Notice is served by the deadline, the main contractor must pay the Notified Sum in full on the final date for payment, whatever it later claims the work was worth. You enforce through s.108 adjudication - refer at any time, a decision inside 28 days, binding immediately on a pay now, argue later basis. The dispute over value still exists, but it happens after you have been paid, not before.
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