Getting Paid

In the construction industry, there are special laws designed to help subcontractors use out of court ways to get paid. If you use them correctly, the process is relatively fast and cost effective.

If your client hasn't paid, or if you are receiving correspondence (such as a Payment Schedule) that says that your builder isn't going to pay, it is really important you get some help straight away.

Australian Security of Payment Laws involve strict timeframes that, if missed, could make it harder and more expensive for you to debt recover.

If you have good grounds to believe your customer is going to go broke, it is critical you seek advice as soon as possible. There are limited ways you can become a secured creditor, and time is of the essence.

Contract Reviews

For a fixed fee, we:

• Speak with you to come to grips with the project, your scope and your business considerations;

• Provide you with an industry-specific credit report on your customer;

•  Prepare your departures schedule and speak with you again to make sure you understand what changes you are asking for, and why;

•  Hold your hand through the negotiation with your client no matter how many iterations are involved;

•  We check the final contract document with departures included before you sign it to ensure that everything has been properly included.

   

Contract Documents

Industry associations that provide contract documents have long held the view that their target audience is the big shiny builder.

We provide contracts with fair and reasonable terms that cater to the unique needs of your business.

We provide contracts for:

• Subcontractor direct to commercial building owner or body corporate;
• Subcontractor engaging sub-subcontractors;
• Subcontractor to sub-consultant (for subcontractors doing design work);
• Consultancy Agreement (between you and your client).

Our contracts are bespoke, and designed for you to own and use as many times as you require. They are not offered on a subscription basis. 

Insurance 

If you think of your insurance policies as just another bill to pay, you might be leaving money on the table or worse, leaving yourself exposed.

There are two ways we help you with your insurance policies:

1. Review and gap analysis of your policies. 

If you don't know where your insurance policies start and stop, you might be paying good money for a policy that still leaves you exposed.

For a fixed fee, we will take you through your insurance policy, explain what it covers and what it excludes, and provide you with a list of action items to fill any gaps found.

2. Making and managing a claim.

What you do and say to your insurer when you need to make a claim can have a bearing on whether your insurance policy will provide cover. 

Your instinct will be to phone your broker for advice, but this can be risky because the broker is the insurer's agent, not yours. 

Dispute Resolution

If your spidey senses are telling you something isn't quite right, you should trust them.

In our experience, subcontractors have a very good trickery radar, and I have lost count of the number of times I've heard the words "I wish I had found you three months ago when...".

Many subcontractors put their head in the sand and hope they can get out of the job and still get paid. But that delay in seeking advice often significantly damages the subcontractor's position.

Dispute resolution processes usually look like giving a special notice under the contract or writing a letter (or series of "good bloke" emails) to your builder to bring the matter to a head. 

If a dispute resolution process doesn't entirely resolve the issues, there are commercial and legal benefits to making every possible attempt to avoid an out of court resolution before the matter proceeds to litigation.

Litigation

At Subcontractor Legal, we pride ourselves on being able to provide our clients with a smorgasbord of out of court solutions to most problems. 

But it is a sad reality of business that sometimes people get sued or need to sue to protect their interests.

Litigation can be incredibly stressful. Having someone in your corner who intimately understands the operational needs of your business - as well as the law - keeps your options open and your quality of life in check. 

Subcontractor Legal is a front-end law firm that doesn't specialise in litigation. For this reason, we partner with other construction litigation firms so that you can enjoy the best of both worlds - a solicitor on record backed by a big name firm and seasoned litigation lawyers, but teamed up with our commerciallly minded advice, to keep it real and commercially viable.

If you are being threatened with legal proceedings, don't wait to seek advice. Early intervention can save you multi six figures in wasted legal fees.