8 December 2021
Set down the tools and pick up the calendar to look at what the holidays mean for your business and your cash flow.
With the festive season on the horizon, it’s time to set down the tools and pick up the calendar to look at what the holidays mean for your business and your cash flow, as it can affect when you are entitled to be paid, and when you must make payments.
There are many timeframes under the Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017 (BIF Act) based on business days. These include critical timeframes around payments, responding to payment claims, and the payment dispute processes.
No business days over the Christmas/New Year period!
Under the BIF Act, a business day does not include:
- (a) a Saturday or Sunday, or
- (b) a public holiday, special holiday, or bank holiday in the place in which any relevant act is to be or may be done, or
- (c) any day occurring within:
- (i) 22 to 24 December,
- (ii) 27 to 31 December, or
- (iii) 2 to 10 January.
This means that there are no business days under the BIF Act from the entire period Wednesday, 22 December 2021 to Monday, 10 January 2022 (inclusive):
In practical terms, this means that a payment claim issued on 21 December 2021, payable in 10 business days under the BIF Act, will not be due until 24 January 2022.
Similarly, where a respondent has 15 business days to provide a payment schedule, the payment schedule responding to a payment claim given on 21 December 2021 would not be due until 1 February 2022, like the Australia Day public holiday on 26 January 2022 is another non-business day under the BIF Act.
As always, check your contract for deadlines, timeframes, and the contractual definition of ‘days’, ‘working days’ or ‘business days’ which will fall around this time of year to ensure your well-deserved festive break doesn’t result in a costly hangover in the new year.
For further information or to discuss your specific circumstances please call Master Builders Members Legal on 1300 30 50 10.
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