News & Testimonials

In construction, a late payment rarely arrives alone. Applications get queried, final accounts drag on, and retentions sit for months after the job is done. By the time an invoice is finally paid, the delay has often cost the business far more than the invoice amount shows. What many contractors and subcontractors don't realise is that UK law lets you claim for part of that cost. In short: under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, a business that is paid

Construction projects run long, final accounts get disputed, and retentions sit untouched for a year or more after a job finishes. It's easy for an unpaid invoice to drift quietly from "being dealt with" to "forgotten about", and while that happens, a clock is running. In short: for most unpaid construction invoices, the general time limit to pursue the debt is six years in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and five years in Scotland. The clock generally starts when the su

"More customers are struggling to pay us on time than ever before, often because they're dealing with late payments themselves. At the end of the day, we're a builders' merchant, not a bank." That's how Keith Fryer, Director of Business Development at FORT Builders Merchant, described the pressure now facing suppliers across the construction supply chain. In short: new research from Bibby Financial Services found that 4 in 10 UK SMEs have shortened their own customer payment