Builder's Playbook · England · UK03
JCT interim payment and retention
Educational, not legal or tax advice. Check your contract and the current law (England and Wales).
5 points
Diarise each IVD and its four dates
Under JCT SBC 2024 the payment falls due 7 days after each Interim Valuation Date. The Interim Certificate follows within 5 days of the due date, and the final date for payment is 14 days after the due date. A Pay Less Notice goes no later than 5 days before the final date. These are calendar days: weekends count, and Christmas Day, Good Friday and bank holidays don't (JCT SBC 2024 CP 4.8, cl. 4.8, 4.9.1, 4.11.1, 4.11.5, 1.5).
Apply by the Interim Valuation Date, every month
If no Interim Certificate is issued, a Payment Application made by the IVD stands as the Payment Notice. Without one, you have to give a Payment Notice later, and the final date for payment is postponed (cl. 4.10.1, 4.10.2, 4.11.4).
Check gross, retention and net each month
Lay the Interim Certificate beside your application, line by line, and query every difference with the client's QS while the site records are fresh. The certificate is the payment notice, so it must state the sum due and how it was calculated (cl. 4.9.1; HGCRA 1996 s.110A).
Retention: full to practical completion, then half
The Retention Percentage is 3% unless the Contract Particulars say otherwise. It is held in full until practical completion and at half from then until the Certificate of Making Good, not until the end of the Rectification Period (CP 4.19.1, cl. 4.19). After the certificate, apply for the last half and check it appears on the next certificate. Software may use other release points: match them to your contract.
Ask for a separate retention account
The employer holds retention as trustee. Unless it is a local or public authority, it must put the retention in a separate designated bank account if you ask (cl. 4.17.1, 4.17.3). The government proposes a ban on cash retention, but nothing is in force: check the status before you rely on it.