Western Australian Security of Payments regime: Are you ready?

After a long wait, stage 1 of the Western Australian Security of Payments regime commences operation on Monday 1 August 2022. 

Stage 1 applies to all construction contracts entered into on or after 1 August 2022 for construction work in WA.

There are major changes to:

• The types of construction work captured by the new regime (offshore work is captured and the mining exemption narrowed)
• The ways in which payments are claimed and assessed (an east-coast payment schedule regime will be used)
• The timeframes for payment claims and payment disputes (they are much shorter than the current regime)
• The rights of head contractors and subcontractors where their claims are not paid (dispute, enforcement and suspension rights are much greater)
• The application of notice-based contractual time bars (if they are ‘unfair’ they cannot be relied upon to reject a claim)
• The adjudication process for payment disputes (the process is almost brand new and is designed to limit the dispute to the payment claim)
• The new SOPA regime will operate alongside the existing Construction Contracts Act regime while current contracts are ‘run off’. This means managing two different regimes simultaneously.  

Our Perth team is hosting workshops to help our clients and construction industry participants prepare for the new regime, while managing their obligations under the existing regime.