Letter · Construction & Infrastructure
Covering letter to a principal contractor serving a payment withholding request (NSW)
Letter from a subcontractor's lawyers enclosing a payment withholding request under s 26A of the NSW Security of Payment Act: explains the principal contractor's duty to retain money, the 10-business-day notice if it owes nothing, joint liability for paying out, and when the duty ends.
- Kind
- Letter. A letter or email you adapt and send.
- Where it applies
- New South Wales
- AI use
- Yellow AI can help in set ways. A lawyer checks specific points before use.
- Law stated as at
- 18 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked on 18 October 2026 against the 3 authorities it cites, for New South Wales.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Use when a claimant has made an adjudication application against a respondent who is owed money further up the contract chain, and serves the approved-form payment withholding request on the principal contractor. The request itself is the approved form with its statutory declaration; this letter accompanies it.
How AI may be used
AI may fill the covering letter from the adjudication application and the contract chain and diarise the claimant's follow-up duties; the lawyer checks who the principal contractor is and the amounts, and the claimant makes its own statutory declaration.
AI may
- Fill the parties, project, payment claim and adjudication application details from the file
- Diarise the claimant's duties: serve the determination within 5 business days of receiving it, and give notice of any withdrawal within 5 business days
- Build the contract chain table from the subcontract and head contract documents on file
AI must not
- Must not draft, fill or outline the statutory declaration that the approved-form request must include
- Must not alter the approved form or state amounts different from the adjudication application
- Must not tell the principal contractor that it owes the respondent money unless the claimant has a basis for saying so
The lawyer checks
- An adjudication application has been made for the payment claim before the request is served (s 26A(1))
- The person served is a principal contractor within s 26A(4): someone by whom money is or becomes payable to the respondent for the relevant work
- The request is on the form approved by the Secretary and includes the claimant's own statutory declaration (s 26A(2) and (3))
- Service method and proof of service are in place, and the follow-up duties in ss 26B(5) and 26D(3) are diarised
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
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