CCA Form 1 and Payment Claim Templates NZ — What a Valid Payment Claim Must Contain (2026)
- Steve Parker
- 5 days ago
- 9 min read
A payment claim that misses one of the six requirements in section 20 of the Construction Contracts Act, or goes out without Form 1 attached, can be worth very little when payment stalls — no default liability, no debt due, no adjudication shortcut. The paperwork is the leverage.
By Steve Parker · Trueworks · NZ construction estimation · 9 min
What you'll learn in this post
The six things section 20 says every valid payment claim must contain — and the omissions that trip contractors up most often
What CCA Form 1 actually is, when it must accompany your claim, and where to download the official version — plus what genuinely invalidates a payment claim
What a working payment claim template covers on both sides of the transaction — serving claims monthly as a subbie, and responding with a payment schedule as a payer
Quick answer: A valid payment claim under section 20 of the Construction Contracts Act 2002 must be in writing, identify the construction contract, identify the work and the period it relates to, state a claimed amount and the due date for payment, show how the amount was calculated, and state that it is made under the Act. For construction contracts entered into on or after 1 December 2015, the claim must also be accompanied by Form 1 of the Construction Contracts Regulations 2003 — the prescribed information sheet that explains how the payer can respond and what happens if they do neither respond nor pay. Download the current Form 1 from building.govt.nz or read it on legislation.govt.nz, and have any payment claim template checked once by a construction lawyer before you build your monthly cycle around it.
What is Form 1 under the Construction Contracts Act?
Form 1 is not the payment claim itself. It is the prescribed information sheet set out in Schedule 1 of the Construction Contracts Regulations 2003, published by MBIE under the title "Information that must accompany all payment claims". It exists because the Construction Contracts Act 2002 requires every payment claim to be accompanied by a written outline of the process for responding to the claim, and an explanation of the consequences if the payer neither responds nor pays.
In plain terms, Form 1 tells the person receiving your claim:
That the claim is made under the Act — and that the Act's payment regime applies to the contract whether or not the contract mentions it
How they can respond — pay the claimed amount in full by the due date, or issue a payment schedule stating what they will pay and why it differs
What happens if they do nothing — the claimed amount becomes payable in full, recoverable as a debt due in court, and the claimant may have the right to suspend work or refer the dispute to adjudication
Where to find more information about the regime
Do not retype the form from memory, and do not trust a version buried in an old template pack. Download the current version from MBIE's Building Performance site or read it in the Construction Contracts Regulations 2003, Schedule 1 on legislation.govt.nz. Those are the authoritative sources. Everything else circulating by email is a copy of a copy.
One piece of history still causes confusion. Before the 2015 amendments, the prescribed form was only required when a payment claim was served on a residential occupier. For construction contracts entered into on or after 1 December 2015, the requirement applies to payment claims generally — commercial and residential alike. Older guidance and older template packs still describe the residential-only rule. If your contract was signed in the last decade, work on the basis that Form 1 travels with every claim you serve.
Anatomy of a valid payment claim under section 20
Section 20 of the Act sets out what a payment claim form must contain. Six requirements, none of them optional:
In writing. An email with an attached claim document is fine. A conversation on site is not.
Sufficient details to identify the construction contract. Name the parties, the project, and the contract — date, reference number, or purchase order. On a small job, "our quotation 1042 accepted by you on 14 March" does the work.
Identifies the construction work and the relevant period. Say what work the claim relates to and which claim period it covers — typically the month just ended. Vague descriptions invite argument; a claim that maps to your priced schedule of work does not.
States a claimed amount and the due date for payment. One number, clearly labelled as the claimed amount, plus the date payment falls due. If the contract sets a due date mechanism, follow it. If the contract is silent, the Act's default provisions apply — payment falls due 20 working days after the claim is served.
Indicates how the claimed amount was calculated. This is the requirement most claims fail in substance. A single lump sum with no build-up is asking for trouble. Show contract value, percentage or quantity complete per trade section, approved variations, previous claims, and retentions — enough that the payer can check your arithmetic.
States that it is made under the Construction Contracts Act 2002. A sentence such as "This is a payment claim made under the Construction Contracts Act 2002" is the convention. Without it, you have an invoice, not a payment claim, and the Act's default-payment machinery never engages.
Courts have generally read payment claims fairly rather than punishing technical quibbles, asking whether the document told the payer what was claimed and how to respond. But you do not want to be the test case. The cost of doing it properly is one well-built template; the cost of getting it wrong is arguing validity in adjudication while your cashflow waits.
When Form 1 must accompany a claim — and what actually invalidates one
For contracts entered into on or after 1 December 2015, attach Form 1 to every payment claim you serve. Not the first claim only — every claim. Serving it costs nothing; omitting it puts the claim's enforceability at risk, because the accompanying information is part of what the Act requires. The safe operating assumption for any contractor is simple: no Form 1, no reliable claim.
The recurring defects that give payers an argument, roughly in the order we see them:
No Form 1 attached on a post-2015 contract
No statement that the claim is made under the Act — the single most expensive missing sentence in NZ construction
No identified period, or a claim that overlaps a previous claim without reconciling it
A claimed amount with no visible calculation — no build-up, no variation schedule, no previous-claims summary
Served on the wrong party or by the wrong method — check the contract's notices clause for who receives claims and how service must be effected
Claimed variations with no substantiation — a number with no measure, no rate, and no instruction reference invites a payment schedule that strikes it out
None of this is exotic. It is discipline, applied monthly.
What a payment claim template NZ contractors can rely on should contain
A serviceable payment claim template is one page of claim summary plus supporting schedules. The summary page carries:
Header block — your entity name, the payer's entity name, project name and address, contract reference, claim number, claim period, and date of service
The statement that the claim is a payment claim made under the Construction Contracts Act 2002
The claim build-up — original contract sum, approved and claimed variations, value of work completed to date, less previously claimed, less retentions where the contract provides for them, giving the claimed amount for the period
The due date for payment, per the contract or the Act's default provisions
GST treatment shown clearly, so there is no ambiguity about whether the claimed amount is GST inclusive or exclusive
Form 1 attached, every time
Two cautions on templates. First, wording matters — have a construction lawyer review your template once before you standardise on it. That review costs far less than one disputed claim. Second, the template is only as strong as the numbers inside it. A beautifully formatted claim with an unsubstantiated variation in the middle of it is still a weak claim. That numbers layer — measured quantities, rates benchmarked against the contract, variation build-ups the payer's QS can follow — is the part Trueworks prepares for contractors, as a variation substantiation pack with a 5 business day turnaround for full measurement work.
Payment schedules — how to respond, and the "payment notice template" confusion
Searches for a "construction act payment notice template" usually come from people who have read UK material. Under the UK legislation the responding document is a payment notice; under New Zealand's Construction Contracts Act the responding document is a payment schedule under section 21. Different name, similar job.
If you receive a payment claim and do not intend to pay the full claimed amount, a valid payment schedule must:
Be in writing and identify the payment claim it responds to
State a scheduled amount — the amount you propose to pay, even if that amount is nil
Where the scheduled amount is less than the claimed amount — show how the scheduled amount was calculated, explain why it differs from the claimed amount, and where payment is being withheld, give the reasons for withholding
Timing is the trap. The schedule must be served within the time the contract specifies or, if the contract is silent, within 20 working days after the payment claim is served. Miss the window and the claimed amount becomes payable in full regardless of the merits — the Act deliberately punishes silence. We cover the responding side in full, including what a defensible schedule looks like line by line, in our guide to payment schedules under the Construction Contracts Act.
A monthly payment claim checklist for subcontractors
Run this before every claim goes out the door:
Claim number and period stated, sequential, no gaps, no overlaps with the previous claim
Contract identified — parties, project, contract or PO reference
Work described against your priced schedule, with percentage or quantity complete per section
Variations listed separately, each with an instruction reference, measure, rate, and build-up
Previous claims reconciled — claimed to date, certified to date, this claim
Retentions shown where the contract provides for them — and remember retention money must be held on trust under the Act
Claimed amount and due date stated, GST treatment clear
The CCA statement included, word for word, on the claim itself
Form 1 attached as a separate accompanying document
Served correctly — right entity, right address or inbox per the notices clause, and keep proof of service with the claim in your records
If the payer neither pays nor serves a schedule in time, the Act gives you options: recovery of the unpaid amount as a debt due, suspension of work on proper notice, and adjudication. Our guide for subcontractors who have not been paid walks through that sequence in order.
FAQ — CCA Form 1 and payment claim templates
Where do I get the official CCA Form 1? Download it from MBIE's Building Performance site (building.govt.nz), where it is published as "Form 1 — Information that must accompany all payment claims", or read the prescribed form in Schedule 1 of the Construction Contracts Regulations 2003 on legislation.govt.nz. Use the current official version rather than a copy embedded in someone's template pack.
Do I have to attach Form 1 to every payment claim? For construction contracts entered into on or after 1 December 2015, yes — attach it to every claim, on commercial and residential work alike. The older residential-occupier-only rule applies to contracts predating the 2015 amendments, which is why some older guidance reads differently.
Is there a standard payment claim template NZ contractors can download? There is no single prescribed payment claim form — the Act prescribes content, not layout. Form 1 is prescribed; the claim itself is not. Build a template that carries the six section 20 requirements, have a construction lawyer check the wording once, and then use it identically every month.
Is a payment schedule the same as a payment notice? Functionally similar, but "payment notice" is the UK term. In New Zealand the document that responds to a payment claim is a payment schedule under section 21 of the Construction Contracts Act, and it must state a scheduled amount and explain any difference from the claimed amount, within the contractual or default timeframe.
What makes a payment claim invalid? The common failures: no statement that the claim is made under the Act, no identifiable period or contract, no indication of how the claimed amount was calculated, service on the wrong party, and — on post-2015 contracts — no Form 1 accompanying the claim. Any one of these gives the payer an argument that the default-payment machinery never engaged.
This post is general information about the Construction Contracts Act 2002, not legal advice. The Act and the Regulations on legislation.govt.nz are the authoritative sources, and template wording for claims and schedules should be reviewed by a construction lawyer. Where Trueworks fits is the numbers behind the claim — measured variations, claim build-ups, and substantiation packs that stand up when the payer's QS starts checking.
Sitting on a variation, claim or contract clause you are not sure about? Send it with the contract — a written, code-cited answer back within 24 hours. Send us the drawings and the quote, tender or variation. You get a written, code-cited check back within 24 hours. No charge for your first check. No card, no obligation. NDA available. → Get the free check at trueworks.co.nz/contact — or email hello@trueworks.co.nz
About Trueworks
Trueworks is built by Steve Parker — 20 years on the analytical side of NZ construction. Variation reviews, contract advisory, programme review, and document-heavy estimation work. Trueworks is the productisation of that practice for NZ trades and builders: the same defensible analysis, at a price and pace a working contractor can actually use.
Every report is checked and signed off by me personally before it goes out. If you have a quote or tender you want a second opinion on, the easiest way to find out if Trueworks is useful is to send it.
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