Christmas is an easy time for things to get missed or to end up late as the deadlines of various institutions have changed for this one particular payment run. The difficulty is that the provisions of the contract - or the Housing Grants Construction and Regeneration Act 1998 (as amended) - don’t allow for Christmas parties, and it wouldn’t be very festive to end up in an indefensible adjudication just because the office was closed.
We strongly advise that, well in advance, you check the contract for the details as to which days count, which days will be the bank holidays, which are given as bank holidays as the usual ones fall on a weekend, and does it factor with how the payment terms are calculated? Being prepared, knowing the position and sorting it out without a last-minute panic will avoid problems.
If you are not going to make the payment that was certified, check the requirements for issuing a pay less notice. You need to count the days and depending on the contract this may or may not include those bank holiday days. Then consider the practical elements, will you be working on the day that such notices would be issued? When will your accounts need to set that payment up to do it in time for the amount you are sending? Will they be expecting the other party to issue them an invoice for the new sum due, or will they part pay an invoice that they already have?
Late payment is not something you want to do, whether you are an employer or a contractor. Keep your accounts and finance team up to date so that things are processed in plenty of time - don’t let holiday merriment provide the other side with ammunition, or an easy way out if things are already rocky!
Early communication and good relationships in your supply chain are key to avoid a dispute, so keep everyone informed. Any slight changes in the dates planned around Christmas to suit your company’s payment processes can offset the risk of distinctly un-seasonal arguments if properly communicated and made to correspond to the contract terms.