Having the appropriate building licence is important

Having the correct building licence is vital if you are to be successful in construction adjudication.

In simple terms, if you need a Queensland Building & Construction Commission (“QBCC”) licence for the work that you do, then you will be unable to use the Building and Construction Industry Payments Act (“BCIPA”) to recover payments if you do not hold that building licence.

Houses

A recent Queensland Supreme Court judgement determined that the requirement to hold a building licence as a precondition to entitlement to use the BCIPA extends to licencing jurisdictions other than QBCC; e.g. Electrical licencing.

You may be surprised to know that a not uncommon problem is that whilst the individual owner of a company may be licensed, the company which is making the payment claim is sometimes not itself licensed, and therefore not entitled to receive payment under the BCIPA or otherwise.

Claimants must be clear as to the requirements to hold a specific building licence for the work that they do.

Generally speaking, even if your licence has been suspended or cancelled but you held a valid building licence at the time you carried out the relevant work, then you will be able to use the BCIPA.

If in doubt – seek expert assistance from Adjudicate Assist.

Help vital to successful adjudication

It has never been more important to seek help preparing for adjudication under the Building and Construction Industry Payments Act (“BCIPA”).

Help vital to success in adjudication

Monthly adjudication statistics published by the Queensland Building and Construction Commission (“QBCC”) for January 2016 indicate that approximately 31.5% of all adjudication applications made to QBCC are withdrawn before being referred to an adjudicator because of application validation issues. Additionally, 18% of all adjudication decisions released the adjudicator found that there was no jurisdiction.

Put another way, this means that approximately 40% of all adjudication applications made to QBCC do not result in any decision because of validation issues that could easily be avoided if expert help had been requested.

Claimants need to ensure that their applications tick all the boxes before being submitted, to avoid unnecessary disappointment and wasting of money on doomed adjudication applications.

Adjudicate Assist CAN help you!

Adjudicate Assist can offer assistance for the claimant or the respondent with the adjudication process by trained ADJUDICATORS.  All consultants are highly experienced in the adjudication process and are aware of the criteria required for recovering or defending payment under the Act – don’t settle for second best and be disadvantaged!

If in doubt – seek expert assistance from Adjudicate Assist.