A later claim includes work valued in an earlier adjudication
Identify the same previously adjudicated work and evidence of changed value when reviewing a later NSW payment claim.
Corporate Recovery Partners
01 / 06
The new claim repeats a familiar item
A hypothetical NSW contractor receives a later payment claim that includes work considered in an earlier adjudication. The team assumes the new invoice allows the whole valuation to be argued again from the beginning. Put the earlier determination beside the new claim and obtain construction-law advice. First establish whether the documents concern the same work and what, if anything, has changed.
Use drawing references, locations, measured quantities and claim descriptions to map the earlier and later items. Do not rely only on a similar invoice label. Distinguish the work previously valued from additional work or another stage that happens to use the same product. Mark unresolved matches so the lawyer can see the factual question rather than a guessed conclusion.
NSW Government guidance explains that a subsequent adjudicator must use a previous adjudicated value for the work, goods or services unless a party shows that value has changed since the earlier determination. Ask the lawyer how that rule applies to the actual documents. This does not make every later claim invalid or permit an unsupported fresh valuation simply because the earlier result was unwelcome.
In the hypothetical example, provide dated records of relevant additional activity or changed circumstances for professional assessment. Keep those facts separate from a repeated disagreement with the earlier reasoning. Do not create a revised quantity or alter old records to make a new valuation appear justified. The adviser needs evidence of what actually changed and when.
Provide the ledger and bank evidence showing any amounts already paid, alongside the item comparison. A previous valuation and a previous payment answer different questions. Ask how both affect the present response without assuming that either can simply be subtracted from every later claim. Keep applicable response requirements under urgent advice while the comparison is prepared.
Give the lawyer the earlier determination, the later claim and a short item-by-item schedule with source references. CRP can help organise the commercial records. The useful outcome is a supported view of what was already valued and what is genuinely new, rather than treating a fresh claim number as permission to forget the earlier adjudication.
