They never replied to my application. What do I send?

You applied on the right day. The five days for their payment notice have come and gone. Nothing. No certificate, no email, no argument even. What now?

Under the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 their silence has a meaning, and it is in your favour. The payer was supposed to serve a payment notice not later than five days after the due date (section 110A). They did not. From here there are two routes, and your contract decides which one you are on.

First: does the Act cover your job?

None of this machinery exists on a contract with a residential occupier, someone living or intending to live in the house (section 106). There, silence is just silence, and what you can do about it comes from your contract alone. Everything below is for jobs the Act covers.

Route one: your application already did the work

If your contract provides for you to make a payment application, and you made one that states the sum and the basis on which it is calculated, then in the payer’s silence your application can stand as the notice, and your figure becomes the notified sum. You do not have to send anything else, though a short letter pointing this out concentrates minds.

Route two: the payee default notice

If the contract does not provide for applications, or yours did not do the job, section 110B lets you serve the notice yourself: a document stating the sum you consider due at the payment due date and the basis on which it is calculated. Same content as their missing notice, from the other side of the table.

One mechanical detail worth knowing: where you serve a default notice, the final date for payment moves back by the same number of days late your notice was. Serve it promptly and you lose nothing.

What to do this week

1. Check what your contract says about applications. One line decides your route.

2. Route one: write the short letter. Application made on date X under the contract, no payment notice served, the sum applied for is the notified sum, final date for payment is Y.

3. Route two: serve the section 110B notice now. Sum, basis, date. Every day of delay moves your own payday.

4. Then watch for a pay less notice. It is the one document that can still change the figure, and it has its own deadline. See the client says he is paying less.

Where the information stops

Whether your application was made “in accordance with the contract” is precisely what these disputes turn on: right day, right addressee, sum and basis stated. If the amount is serious and the paperwork is untidy, an hour with a construction solicitor before you write beats a fortnight of correspondence after.