As of October 1, 2019, the prompt payment and adjudication provisions of the Construction Act come into effect and business owners need to be ready. If you already are, great. If not … see below. Kennaley Construction Law have a couple of seminars lined up and have resources (guides) available to assist you in navigating these significant changes.
As part of prompt payment, contractors will have 28 day payment terms from owners, while subcontractors have 35 days, sub-sub-contractors have 42 days, and so on. Everyone in the ladder has to make the payments unless they give a ‘notice of non-payment’ on tight timelines set out in the Act. Owners, for example, have a mere 14 days to review a contractor’s proper invoice to decide if it should be paid, in whole or in part. If anyone misses a notice deadline, they have to pay – even if they have not been paid by those above.
The adjudication provisions allow virtually any construction dispute to be submitted to adjudication on terms that will result in a binding decision in as quickly as 46 days or less. If you use the process to work for you, it will help resolve disputes in a fair and timely fashion. If you are not ready for the process, or can’t effectively set out your position on very short notice, a binding decision may go against you from which there is no right of appeal. The consequences could be devastating.
The processes are difficult to follow on a reading of the Act. Also, the ‘nuts and bolts’ of the processes are just now emerging from the Attorney General’s office. You should have questions. You need to know how this works; how to protect your rights, how to meet your obligations and what you can do to be prepared (from contract drafting, to field and home office practices).
KCL are hosting two client seminars to review and update the prompt payment and adjudication provisions and discuss practical strategies for dealing with same. They have crystalized the Act’s changes into a number of brief issue specific guides (or cheat sheets). In addition to prompt payment and adjudication guides, there are also issue specific guides on the new lien time frames, new holdback processes, new bonding requirements on public projects, new rights to request vital information, new document publishing obligations and new rules for liens against leasehold interests. These will be handed out at the seminars, and are also available via the link below.
The (free) seminars are scheduled as follows:
September 23, 2019
Hazelton Manor Conference Centre
99 Peelar Rd.
Vaughan, Ontario
(near the 400 and 407)
and
September 25, 2019
Dominion Telegraph Centre
Paris, Ontario
(off the 403).
Doors open for a light breakfast at 7:30 a.m. and we start promptly at 8:00 a.m. The event will conclude by 11:00 a.m. (followed by a Q&A session if you have time to attend).
Please RSVP (one way or another) by email to inquiries@kennaley.ca so organizers can get an idea of numbers.
Note that the seminars will also be valuable for accounting staff as they will be for construction staff (as we are dealing with payment processes). Bring whoever you think might benefit.
It is very important that all contractors and those affected be prepared for these changes.
Guide to changes
