22 September 2026

The adjudication response: why the payment schedule decides the case

A respondent generally cannot raise reasons for withholding that were not in its payment schedule. That makes the schedule, not the response, the document that wins or loses.

The payment schedule said "defective works, $40,000" and nothing else. Eleven weeks later the adjudication response runs to sixty pages, with a delay claim, a set-off for liquidated damages and a valuation dispute. Most of it should never reach the adjudicator, and knowing that changes how you argue.

The rule

Under the East Coast Security of Payment Acts, a respondent that provided a payment schedule generally cannot include in its adjudication response any reason for withholding payment unless that reason was included in the schedule. The schedule is where the respondent’s case is fixed.

This is the counterweight to the claimant’s own strictness. The claimant must serve within time, in the right form, against a valid reference date; in exchange, the respondent must state its reasons at the schedule stage and live with them.

What that means when you are the claimant

• READ the payment schedule closely when it arrives, not when the response does. Its scope is the outer boundary of the argument you will face.
• A reason stated vaguely is still a reason. "Defective works" without particulars is weak, but it is not absent, and the difference matters.
• Where the response raises something new, say so expressly in the reply. Adjudicators are alive to it, and it is not their job to notice on your behalf.

The no-schedule case is different, and better

Where a respondent serves no payment schedule at all within time, it becomes liable for the claimed amount, and its position in any subsequent adjudication is far narrower. This is the strongest position the Acts create for a claimant, and it arises from the respondent’s own inaction.

Which is why a claim served properly against a valid reference date is worth more than a claim served early or informally: the entire consequence machinery depends on the claim having been a payment claim in the statutory sense.

Timing is unforgiving on both sides

The adjudication application and the response run on short statutory periods, counted in business days under the applicable Act’s own definition, which in most jurisdictions excludes a defined end-of-year shutdown. A response prepared over the Christmas period against the wrong calendar arrives late, and a claimant who assumes the ordinary calendar can miss an application window entirely.

What the product does with this

Payment claims, schedules and their dates are recorded as events with the documents attached, so the schedule’s stated reasons sit alongside the variation records they attack. When the response arrives, comparing the two is reading a list rather than reconstructing a history, and the business-day calculations use the applicable state’s definition, including its shutdown period.

General information, not legal advice. The response rules differ between jurisdictions; check the Act that applies to your project.