Welcome to the Queensland Adjudication Knowledge Base. Within this section of our website you will find a variety of helpful information on questions such as:

• What is Adjudication in Queensland, and what does the Building and Construction Industry Payments Act have to do with people getting paid for construction work?
• Who can use the BCIPA Legislation, and to what end?
• What are the requirements for application for adjudication?
• If I am a respondent, what are my requirements with regard to the Act?

The Knowledge Base is broken up into a number of sections. Click below to access these sections.

• General Introduction to the Act, and Adjudication (continued below, also see menu to the left).
• Information for the Claimant - eligibility for application and how to apply
• Information for the Respondent - the rights and responsibilities of the respondent
• Information regarding the Adjudication Process
• Adjudication Forms and Tools - pro-forma documents and flowcharts
• Queensland Adjudication Costs

It should be noted that the information contained within the Knowledge Base should be taken as a guide only, rather than constituting authoritative legal advice. For more information on anything within the Knowledge Base please contact our office. If you desire more detailed information on anything contained within, please consider our Annotated BCIPA Online Guide, a subscription based service that aims to keep you up to date with legislative changes relevant to the BCIP Act, or perhaps consider attendance at one of our many Intensive Training Courses.

The adjudication process, in relation to the Queensland building and construction industry, was introduced in October 2004. It is a dispute resolution process that grants claimants the statutory right to receive progress payments, and explicitly legislated within the Building and Construction Industry Payments Act, 2004. To be eligible for access to the adjudication dispute resolution process there are a number of criteria that must be satisfied.

Adjudication can only be chosen as a route if the claimant submits a valid payment claim to the entity, under the contract, that is liable to make payment (the respondent). Consequently, a claimant must have an eligible contract related to construction or the supply of related goods and services in order to utilise the adjudication process, whether or not it is written, oral, part-written or part-oral. A respondent must either provide payment, or provide what is known as a payment schedule, which details reasons, if any, for not providing full payment of the payment claim. If any of these scenarios is not completed, the claimant may have the option to apply for adjudication.

An adjudication will be decided by a registered adjudicator within strict time limits (10 business days), and a decision on whether the claimant is due payment will be issued. If the adjudication decided in favour of the claimant, they have the option of securing the outstanding payment by requesting an adjudication certificate, and securing a lawfully enforceable judgement debt against the respondent.

BCIPA is an acronym for the Building and Construction Industry Payments Act. It was passed by the Queensland parliament on the 11th of May 2004, and sanctioned on the 20th of May 2004. It was rolled out in two stages, the first beginning in July 2004 (which set up the administrative provisions of the legislation, including the allowance for an adjudication registrar, and registration of Authorised Nominating Authorities and adjudicators), and the second stage coming into effect on the 1st of October 2004. In order to be eligible for adjudication, the construction contract must have come into effect on, or after, this date.

BCIPA is available for download >> here.

The Act was created to ensure that people can receive and recover progress payments for construction work or supply related goods and services under a construction contract. In relations to disputes regarding payment-on-account throughout the construction industry, rapid adjudication enables interim resolution of these disputes.

A claimant is a person, or entity, who is or who claims to be entitled to a progress payment. Generally speaking, in the event of a dispute over a progress payment, a claimant may be allowed to lodge an adjudication application to an Authorised Nominating Authority (see below), which in turn appoints an adjudicator who adjudicates the dispute. Refer to >> Claimant Information

A respondent is a person, or entity, who is or may be liable to make payment to a claimant. Refer to >> Respondent Information

An adjudicator is a person who has the necessary authority to decide an adjudication application referred to them. The adjudicator derives all their authority, rights and obligations from the Act itself. The Act outlines the powers adjudicators have in deciding an adjudication application, as well as what matters an adjudicator can take into consideration. Their appointment is of a statutory nature.

An Authorised Nominating Authority (ANA) is a body registered in accordance with the Act that has several functions. The primary function of the ANA is to receive adjudication applications from claimants and refer these applications to a registered adjudicator for decision.

The secondary function of the ANA is to issue an adjudication certificate, a formal statement of the adjudicator's decision, upon request from a claimant. These certificates are equivalent to converting an adjudicator’s decision into a judgement which can be enforced by the appropriate court.

The RICS DRS is a registered ANA in Queensland.

The adjudication registrar is the administrative body responsible for managing the administrative affairs of the adjudication registry. The responsibilities of the registrar include:

• Registering and maintaining the details of all ANA’s and adjudicators
• Recording and publishing adjudication decisions
• Collecting statistical data

The following diagram represents the basic relationship between these entities

The BCIP Act applies to construction contracts entered into after the 1st of October 2004 for construction work or supply of related goods and services within Queensland. It may be a written contract, an oral contract, partly written and partly oral.

The Act also allows for the concept of an arrangement, which has wider connotations than a contract or agreement. Basically speaking, an “arrangement” encompasses transactions or relationships that are not legally enforceable agreements. An example arrangement may be similar to the following scenario - a principal forwarding payment to a subcontractor of a head contractor in order to keep a job going, despite having no formal agreement with the subcontractor. The subcontractor may be able to lodge payment claims on the principal that still come under the jurisdiction of the Act.

Section 10 (ten) and 11 (eleven) of >> The Act defines the meaning of ‘Construction Work’ and ‘Related Goods and Services’ (refer to these section of the Act for an exhaustive definition).

• Construction, renovation, repair, demolition of building or structure
• Construction of infrastructure
• Installation of fittings (electrical, air-conditioning, drainage, fire protection) to building or structure
• Cleaning of building or structure
• Preparatory work (excavating, foundations, landscaping etc).
• Painting of building or structure
• See the next sections for more information

• Materials and components forming part of a building or structure
• Plant or materials (sold or hired) for use in construction work
• Labour hire
• Consultant services (architects, design, surveying, soil testing, engineering)
• See the next sections for more information

• Contractors against principals/developers
• Subcontractors against contractors
• Suppliers against subcontractors/contractors
• Plant and equipment hirers against subcontractors/contractors
• Consultants against clients

• Work outside Queensland
• A claim for work or services which are the subject of a subcontractor’s charge
• A contract which forms part of a loan agreement, guarantee or contract of insurance
• Domestic building contracts where the owner is a resident owner. That is, the owner intends to reside in the building. However, in this situation, the Act may be applicable to subcontracts. Also, the Act is applicable to Owner Builders and those that possess an Owner Builder license, or should possess an Owner Builder license.
• A contract where the amount to be paid is not calculated based on the value of work done.

Claimants who supply related goods and services under a construction contract are also covered by the BCIP Act. The meaning of construction work is defined in section 10 of the Act as follows:

• The construction, alteration, repair, restoration, maintenance, extension, demolition or dismantling of buildings or structures, whether permanent or not, forming, or to form, part of land;
• The construction, alteration, repair, resotration, maintenance, extension, demolition or dismantling of any works forming, or to form, part of land, including walls, raodworks, power-lines, telecommunication apparatus, aircraft runways, docks and harbours, railways, inland waterways, pipelines, reservoirs, water mains, wells, sewers, industrial plant and installations for land drainage or coast protection;
• The installation in any building, structure or works of fittings forming, or to form, part of land, including heating, lighting, air-conditioning, ventilation, power supply, drainage, sanitation, water supply, fire protection, security and communications systems;
• The external or internal cleaning of buildings, structures and works, so far as it is carried out in the course of their construction, alteration, repair, resotration, maintenance or extension;
• Works of the nature of:
1. Site clearance, earth-moving, excavation, tunnelling and boring
2. The laying of foundations
3. The erection, maintenace or dismantling of scaffolding
4. The prefabrication of components to form part of any building, structure or works, whether carried out on-site or off-site
5. Site restoration, landscaping and the provision of raodways and other access works
6. The painting or decoration of the internal or external surfaces of any building, structure or works
7. Carrying out the testing of soils and road making materials during the construction and maintenance of roads

Construction work includes building work within the meaning of the Queensland Building Services Authority Act 1991

However, the following are not included in the definition of construction work under the Act. For these purposes, they are therefore considered outside the Act's jurisdiction:

• The drilling for, or extraction of, oil or natural gas;
• The extraction, whether by underground or surface working, of minerals, including tunnelling or boring, or construction underground works, for that purpose.

Schedule 2 of the states in regard to meaning of to carry out of construction work. It means:

• Carry out construction work personally; or
• Directly or indirectly, cause construction work to be carried out; or
• Provide advisory, administrative, management or supervisroy services for carrying out construction work.

Claimants who supply related goods and services under a construction contract are also covered by the BCIP Act.

Goods are of the following kind -

• Materials and components to form part of any building, structure or work arising from construction work
• Plant or materials (whether supplied by sale, hire or otherwise) for use in connection with the carrying out of construction work.

Services includes the following:

• The provision of labour to carry out construction work
• Architectural, design, surveying or quantity surveying services related to construction work
• Building, engineering, interior or exterior decoration or landscape advisory services relating to construction work
• Soil testing services relating to construction work

A subcontract may utilise the Subcontractor's Charges Act 1974 (SCA) in order to secure money due to the subcontractor. This Act allows a subcontractor to lodge a statuartory charge against a head contract, or a subcontract higher in the chain of subcontract arrangements. However, the SCA has a number of implications for the BCIP Act. These are as follows:

• The BCIP Act cannot be utilised if a person gives a notice of claim to charge under the SCA in relation to the subject of construction contract
• If a claimant is currently involved in a particular adjudication, and issues a claim to charge under SCA prior to the adjudicator's decision, the claimant is taken as if they have withdrawn the adjudication application
• If an adjudicator decides an adjudication application prior to the notice of the claim of charge was given, the following occurs:
  1. The respondent is not required to pay the adjudicated amount
  2. The ANA cannot give the person an adjudication certificate
  3. The claimant may not suspend, or continue to suspend work or supply of related goods and services

• If a Subcontractors charge is withdrawn, the BCIP Act does not prevent the claimant from serving a payment claim under the BCIP Act.
• The BCIP Act does not prevent the serving of a subcontractor's charge if a claim or adjudication determination turns out to be unsuccessful.

The Subcontractors Charges Act is available for download >> here.