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Progress claims explained — and the three mistakes that delay payment

A staged claim is not an invoice. It is a document the Construction Contracts Act has opinions about, and getting the form right is what turns a disputed payment into a debt you can actually enforce.

Written for New Zealand residential builders · Updated September 2026

How staged claims work

On most residential contracts you are not paid for the job at the end. You are paid in stages as the work reaches defined points — a deposit, then foundations, then framing and roof, closed-in, linings, fit-out, and a final payment at practical completion. The Master Builders RBC1 and the Certified Builders contracts both work this way, with the stages and the percentages set out in the schedule at the front.

Two things follow from that, and they trip people up constantly.

The stage is defined by the contract, not by how the job feels. "Framing's basically done" is not a stage. If the schedule says framing and roof, the roof is on.

The percentages are fixed in advance. You cannot rebalance them mid-job because cashflow got tight, not without agreement in writing.

What the Construction Contracts Act requires

This is the part most builders have never actually read, and it is the part that decides whether you get paid.

Under the Construction Contracts Act 2002, a payment claim must be in writing and must:

For residential work there is an extra requirement: a prescribed explanatory notice has to go with the claim, setting out for the homeowner what a payment schedule is and what happens if they don't respond. Check the current prescribed form — it is a regulation, and regulations get updated.

The 20 working day rule, both ways

Once you serve a payment claim, payment becomes due 20 working days later, unless your contract sets a different date.

The other party has that same window to reply with a payment schedule saying how much they intend to pay and, if it is less than you claimed, exactly why.

If they don't serve one, the full claimed amount becomes a debt due. That is the whole point of getting the form right. A correctly served claim that is ignored is enforceable. A sloppy one that doesn't meet the requirements may not be a payment claim at all.

Mistake 1: the claim isn't a payment claim

An invoice with "Progress claim 3" typed at the top is not automatically a payment claim under the Act. If it does not carry the items above — particularly the statement that it is made under the Act, and the residential notice — then the protections do not apply, and the other side's silence means nothing.

The fix: build one template that has every required element in it, and never type a claim from scratch again. The requirements do not change between jobs. Getting it right once fixes it forever.

Mistake 2: claiming a stage you can't evidence

The client, or more often their bank's valuer, wants to know the stage is genuinely complete. If your claim arrives with nothing attached, somebody has to come and look, and that is a week gone — longer if it is a bank.

On a drawdown, the delay is worse, because the valuer's inspection sits between you and the money.

The fix: photograph the stage the day it completes, from the same angles every time, and attach them to the claim. It is five minutes on site. It routinely takes a week out of the payment cycle, and it heads off the "are you sure that's done?" phone call entirely.

Mistake 3: variations riding along inside the claim

This is the expensive one.

Work gets added on site. You do it, because you are standing there and it is easier than an argument. It goes into the next claim as an extra line. The client sees a number they were not expecting, disputes the whole claim, and now the entire payment is stuck — not just the disputed part.

The fix: a variation is its own transaction, agreed in writing before it goes into a claim. Scope, price, effect on the programme, and the client's acceptance. Then it appears on the claim as an already-approved item, not a surprise.

One variation done properly is usually worth more than a month of chasing. It is also the single most common reason a good relationship goes bad at the end of a job.

If you get a payment schedule you disagree with

Don't just ring them up and have a row about it. The Act gives you a process, including adjudication, and the clock on it starts running. If a payment schedule arrives that scopes you out of money you have earned, talk to your lawyer early rather than after three months of emails.

A claim routine that works

  1. Stage completes. Photograph it that day.
  2. Check every variation to date is approved in writing, or leave it out.
  3. Issue the claim from the template, with the photos and the residential notice attached.
  4. Diary the date 20 working days out, the same day you send it.
  5. If no payment schedule arrives and the money doesn't either, you are not chasing an invoice. You are pursuing a debt — and that is a very different conversation.

Claims on the schedule you already use

Silicon Hub runs progress claims on the RBC1 staged schedule, keeps every variation and its approval against the job, and lets the client accept or decline on their phone — so the approval trail exists before the claim goes out, not after the argument starts.

See how it works

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General information for New Zealand residential builders, not legal advice. The Construction Contracts Act 2002 and your own contract govern — and where real money is stuck, a construction lawyer is cheaper than the delay.