Roofing Subcontractors and the Security of Payment Act — A Practical Guide

If you’re a roofing subcontractor in Australia and a head contractor or builder owes you money, you’re probably frustrated. You’ve done the work. The invoice is past due. And you’re watching your cash flow dry up while someone else holds onto your earnings.

The good news is that you have legal protections. Every Australian state has a Security of Payment Act (or equivalent) that gives tradies and subcontractors a fast-track way to recover what they’re owed—without waiting months for a court case. This guide walks you through what those laws are, how they work, and what you can actually do about it.

What Is the Security of Payment Act?

The Security of Payment Act (or Building and Construction Industry Payments Act, depending on your state) is a piece of legislation designed specifically to protect subcontractors and suppliers in the construction industry. The idea is simple: tradies shouldn’t have to fund the project while waiting for payment.

Different states have different names and slightly different rules:

• NSW: Security of Payment Act 1999
• Queensland: Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017
• Victoria: Security of Payment Act 2002
• WA: Construction Contracts Act 2004
• South Australia: Security of Payments Act 2009
• Tasmania: Security of Payments Act 2009
• ACT: Security of Payments Act 2009

The core mechanism is the same across all of them: you can issue a formal payment claim, and if the head contractor doesn’t respond properly or doesn’t pay, you can apply for fast-track adjudication. An adjudicator then decides what’s owed, usually within 10 business days. It’s quicker and cheaper than taking someone to court.

Why Roofing Claims Are Common Under These Laws

Roofing work sits squarely in the firing line for payment disputes. You might be a specialist subcontractor brought in mid-project, or you could be running your own small roofing business picking up jobs from various builders. Either way, you’re often dealing with head contractors who manage multiple trades and are juggling cash flow themselves.

The problem: by the time a roofing job is complete, the money owed to you can easily get lost in the chain. The head contractor hasn’t been paid by the developer. The developer hasn’t been paid by the financier. And you’re waiting at the bottom.

That’s exactly what the Security of Payment Act is built to fix. You don’t need to wait for everyone else in the chain to get paid. You can make a claim on your own, right now.

The Practical Steps to Make a Payment Claim

Here’s how it works in practice:

1. Prepare your claim. Gather invoices, contracts, email chains, progress photos—anything that shows what work you did and what you’re owed. Include dates, descriptions, and amounts. Be clear and detailed.
2. Meet the timing requirements. You generally have to file a payment claim within a set timeframe (usually 12 months of when work was done, but this varies by state). Check your state’s rules.
3. Serve the claim formally. You can’t just email an invoice. The claim has to be served on the head contractor (or whoever owes you) in the way the law requires—usually by hand, email, or registered post. This matters. Do it wrong, and your claim can fail.
4. Wait for a response. The head contractor then has a set period (usually 10 business days) to issue a payment schedule saying what they’ll pay, what they dispute, and when. If they don’t respond, or if you disagree with their response, you can move to adjudication.
5. Apply for adjudication if needed. An independent adjudicator reviews both sides and makes a decision. This is binding and enforceable—even if the other party doesn’t agree.

The whole process from claim to adjudication decision typically takes 4–6 weeks, depending on the state and the complexity of the dispute.

What You Need to Know Before You Act

Before you lodge a claim, be realistic about a few things:

You need a contract (or evidence of one). The Security of Payment Act only applies to construction contracts. If there’s no written contract, you’ll need strong evidence (emails, texts, payment history) that a contract existed. A casual handshake deal with a mate might not be enough.

The amount has to be clear. You need to be able to show exactly what work you did and how much you’re owed. Vague invoices or incomplete records make your claim harder to defend.

Adjudication isn’t court. An adjudicator’s decision is binding and fast, which is good. But it’s also limited—they’re not going to hear every detail like a judge would. They look at what’s in the claim and the payment schedule, and they decide based on that.

You might still need a lawyer later. If the other party ignores an adjudicator’s decision, you may need to take further steps to enforce it. But adjudication is designed so that most disputes get resolved before it gets to that point.

Why You Shouldn’t Leave It Too Late

A lot of tradies put off dealing with unpaid invoices. You’re busy, you assume the cheque is in the mail, you don’t want to rock the boat with a client you might work for again. But that hesitation costs you.

Time limits matter. Once 12 months have passed (in most states), you’ve lost the right to make a claim under the Security of Payment Act. You’d then have to go to court, which is slower, more expensive, and more adversarial. The longer you wait, the colder the paper trail gets, the more excuses the other party has, and the harder it is to prove what actually happened.

If you’re owed money and it’s past due, act sooner rather than later. It doesn’t have to be confrontational. A formal payment claim is just the law doing its job—protecting you.

Getting Started

The Security of Payment Act exists because the construction industry recognised that cash flow is survival for tradies like you. You shouldn’t have to wait months or years for money you’ve already earned while someone else holds onto it.

If you’re owed money and the head contractor isn’t paying, you have a legal pathway to resolve it quickly. The process is designed to be accessible—you don’t necessarily need a lawyer to understand it or use it.

Your state’s legislation sets out all the rules. If you want to move forward with a claim, make sure you’ve got your documentation in order and understand the deadlines in your state. The sooner you act, the sooner you can sort this out and get back to work.