A REVIEW OF THE BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY SECURITY OF PAYMENT ACT WITH RESPECT TO ASSESSMENT OF PAYMENT CLAIMS IN THE ABSENCE OF PAYMENT RESPONSE

Abstract

The dissertation seeks to explore Singapore’s Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act by addressing what the author considers as the true merits of payment claim in the absence of payment response. The scope of dissertation includes consideration on the Court of Appeal’s judgement in Comfort whereby the adjudicator is obligated to discharge an independent duty in making an impartial determination of the payment claim dispute regardless whether a payment or adjudication response has been duly filed. In circumstances whereby respondents fail to submit a payment response, the current standard of assessment of payment claim constitutes to raising patent errors by respondents in the material properly before adjudicators and adjudicators’ satisfaction that prima facie basis has been established by claimants for the work claimed. Based on the current standard of assessment, it is hypothesised that merits of payment claim are not inquired accordingly, specifically on the rates and quantities of work claimed, which bears the risks of awarding inflated claimed amount. As such, the author intends to analyse the current standard of assessment applied by adjudicators with respect to the scope of matters and items that adjudicators shall only consider when determining an adjudication. The dissertation will conclude with proposed revisions to the existing SOP Act on the assessment of merits of payment claim in the absence of payment response with the intention to establish a fairer adjudication proceeding for both claimants and respondents.