When preparing your paperwork under the security of payment legislation, some of the basic things you should pay attention to are:

If you are preparing a payment claim, you must make it clear in your payment claim that it is made under the security of payment legislation of the State in which your construction work is being carried out, unless your work is in Western Australia or the Northern Territory.

You should make sure that your entitlement to lodge a claim has arisen under the applicable legislation before lodging a claim. Too often claimants lodge claims pre-maturely and get their claims rejected and/or lose out in adjudication.

If you are preparing a payment schedule, you must make sure that it is properly served on the other side within the strict time limitation set by the applicable security of payment legislation.

Respondents should be aware that a payment schedule should clearly indicate all of the reasons for withholding any payment, because you will not be able to allege any new reasons later.

If you are the claimant, an adjudication application must be made on time or else you may forever lose your entitlement to have your claim adjudicated, this is especially after the New South Wales Supreme Court decision in Perform (NSW) Pty Ltd v Mev-Aus Pty Ltd trading as Novatec Construction Systems [2009] NSWSC 416

There are of course many more requirements under the security of payment legislations and the relevant case law which you will need to comply with, to find out about those requirements or if you have any queries in relation to the above basic tips, give us a call to seek our advice.