A proposed transfer of new project receipts needs its own review
Assess the identity and supporting documents for a proposed assignment of a builder new-project receivable without asserting its legal effectiveness.
Corporate Recovery Partners
01 / 06
The builder offers you a future receivable
Instead of paying the overdue invoice, the builder offers to transfer a right to money from its new project. That is a different proposal from promising to pay when funds arrive. Take it to a lawyer before accepting, releasing your claim or representing that another party now owes you directly.
Ask which contract, customer, payment claim and amount the offer concerns. Distinguish an existing invoiced amount from a payment that depends on future work or certification. A project value is not an identifiable receivable. Record what documents are available and which parts of the builder's explanation remain unsupported, rather than filling the gaps with assumptions.
Business.gov.au's record-keeping guidance includes invoices, payments and banking records. Preserve the relevant offer and supporting account documents together with your own unpaid invoice. The records help an adviser understand the proposed transaction. They do not establish that a transfer is permitted, effective or free of competing interests simply because the builder has supplied a claim form.
Have the lawyer identify the documents, permissions, notices and other checks needed in the actual circumstances. Raise any known dispute, finance arrangement or prior promise involving the same receipt. Do not try to solve those issues by sending your own payment direction to the project customer or treating silence as agreement to a new obligation.
Compare practical recovery with the headline amount
Imagine the proposed receivable is larger than your invoice but depends on work not yet completed. Ask how timing, uncertainty, costs and any shortfall would affect the bargain. Clarify what happens to your original claim under the proposed documents. Those questions need answers before a larger face value can be treated as a better recovery.
Keep the original account open in your working records until the adviser explains the appropriate treatment. If proceeding, use reviewed documents and retain evidence of the required steps. An offer involving another contract can be considered commercially, but it should never be counted as collected cash or a confirmed substitute merely because it sounds more secure.
