Announced BCIPA Reforms

The Queensland Government has recently announced reforms to the Building and Construction Industry Payments Act (2004) (‘BICPA’) following a review in 2012. The amendments will come into effect later this year with legislation still being finalised. The announced reforms include:

·         The Queensland Building and Construction Commission will appoint adjudicators to particular cases instead of claimants nominating adjudicators.

·         The time for serving a payment claim will reduce from 12 to six months after the construction work was carried out or the goods and services supplied, unless there is provision in the contract lengthening this time.

·         The time to serve a claim will vary depending on the value of the claim. For claims greater than $750,000 the respondent will have:

o   15 business days (increased from 10) to provide a payment schedule or 30 business days if the claim was served more than 91 days after the reference date of the contract.

o   15 business days to provide an adjudication response which the adjudicator can increase by a further 15 days.

·         For claims under $750,000 the respondent has:

o   10 business days to provide a payment schedule  (increased from 5)

o   10 business days to provide an adjudication response

·         In their adjudication response, respondents will be able to include all relevant reasons for withholding payment and claimants will have a right to reply.

The Queensland government has proposed that contracts entered into before September 1^st 2014 will remain unaffected by the changes, while contracts entered into post September 1^st will be subject to the reforms. 

Due to the changes in time frames and implications for contracts, industry participants will need to consider what changes should be made to their contracts in conjunction with legal advice.

The reforms remain the subject of parliamentary debate with a possibility of further changes.