Four kinds of protection, what the research says each disease costs, and all 135 obligations

The latent condition was real. The rock was where the geotech said clay would be, and every day the excavator sat is in the diary. The contract said notify as soon as it was found. The notice went in a fortnight later, and the costs of those days were gone.

Nobody argued about the rock. The obligation failed on its shape: a window that opened on an event, and shut while everyone was dealing with the event. That is one of four shapes an obligation fails in, and this week Demiton has a protection for each of them.

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Four kinds of protection

Each obligation in the library carries the kind of protection its shape needs. Here are the four, each traced on a real obligation from the library.

Each panel reads left to right: what starts it, what Demiton counts, what it reports

Watcha window that opens on an event

AS 4000 cl 34.2: claim an extension of time within 28 days of the delay starting.

Day 0
delay startsDay 12
notice recordedDay 28
window shuts

The notice lands inside the window, so the watch reads met. No notice by day 28 and the claim is barred.

Countdowna fixed date that is coming

Taxation Administration Act 1953, Sch 1: lodge the taxable payments annual report by 28 August.

30 May
90 days29 Jul
30 days21 Aug
7 days28 Aug
due

A flag at each of the first three dots, each with the record the report needs attached. Steps are dated, not drawn to scale.

Checkevidence that must exist

TMR Transport Infrastructure Contract cl 33.2.1: submit the daily report within one business day.

M

T

W

T

F

M

T

W

T

F

One day has no report by the next business day, so the check reads at risk now, not at the final account, when the delay claim needs that day.

Thresholda measure against a line

Your own commitment: keep committed and actual cost on each cost code within budget plus the tolerance you set.

Earthworks82%

Drainage97%

Pavement108%

Traffic64%

Dashed line: budget plus your 5% tolerance (105%)

Pavement crosses budget plus 5% and is flagged while there is still work left to price differently. Example cost codes.

Watch: a window that opens when something happens

AS 4000-1997 cl 34.2: claim an extension of time within 28 days of the delay starting, or the claim is barred. There is no date to put in a calendar until the delay happens. A watch opens the window on the event, counts it in Australian business days or New Zealand working days by where the job is, and reports how many days remain. When the notice is recorded, the window closes against it.

79 obligations in the library are watches, most of them notice windows. It is the protection behind missed claims and most of disputes, and the missed claims one closed end to end this week: "Notice lodged" on the alert writes the notice to your contract notice register, closes the window, and records the catch. That register had 17 declared fields and had never had a row written to it, so until this week the watches that depend on a notice could never be met.

Countdown: a fixed date that is coming

Taxation Administration Act 1953, Schedule 1: report payments to contractors in the taxable payments annual report by 28 August each year. The date is known a year out. A countdown flags it at 90, 30 and 7 days, with the record it needs attached.

7 obligations in the library are countdowns: final claims (91 days from practical completion under GC21 in the ACT, 20 business days under TMR's CAP010M), retention recovery within 12 months of the defects period ending in Queensland, and the TPAR. The same countdown already runs every day on each worker's licences and tickets and each subcontractor's certificate of currency, which is where lapsed compliance starts.

Check: evidence that must exist

Queensland's Transport Infrastructure Contract cl 33.2.1: submit the daily report within one business day. Nothing happens on the day it is missed. It matters eleven months later, when the delay claim needs the record for that day. A check looks, on the obligation's own cadence, for the record that should exist, and reports a gap now rather than at the final account.

45 obligations are checks: daily diaries and day-works dockets, monthly programme updates, valid payment claims, retention trust ledgers, underground services records kept for 24 months, and time and wage records kept for seven years under Fair Work Act s 535.

Threshold: a measure against a line

Committed and actual cost on each cost code, against its budget plus the tolerance you set when you switch it on. The tolerance defaults to 0% and is labelled as ours until you change it, because the line is your commitment, not a clause. A threshold tracks the measure every day and flags the crossing while there is still budget left to act on.

4 obligations are thresholds: the budget tolerance in Australia and New Zealand, and the earthworks compaction minimums in TMR MRTS04 Table 15.3(b) and Transport for NSW R44 Table R44.7. Demiton does not measure a compaction lot yet, so those two read Cannot check yet, grey, never red. A result we cannot measure is reported as unmeasured, not as a miss.

What runs today

All five diseases have a daily check scheduled in production and a registered action behind every alert:

Live is derived, not typed: a disease is live only when its check is scheduled and its action is registered. Deriving it found a gap straight away. Four of the five actions armed their watch, fired their alert, and then failed at the first step with "service not found", because the list of actions and the list of services that run them had never been compared. A test compares them now.

The four kinds of protection are built as four general engines, so a new obligation of a known shape needs a library row rather than new code. Today the five daily checks above still decide what runs. The switch that hands that decision to the obligations you tick on each project flips once the last open rework decision is settled, and until then every project keeps the protection it has.

Live says the protection runs. It does not say one has prevented a loss. None has recorded a real catch in the Proof ledger yet.

What the research says each disease costs

A figure about a disease only means something once you know whose money it measures. The research sorts every finding into one of four kinds:

• Contractor loss: money the contractor never gets back.
• Money at stake: money exposed on the job, which may still be recovered.
• Owner side: the client's overrun, not the contractor's.
• Societal: the cost to everyone else, such as injury borne by the public system.

They are never added together. A 33% dispute is not a 33% loss, and an owner's overrun is not the contractor's. What makes the contractor-loss figures land is the line they are measured against: the planned gross margin on Australian civil and transport work is 9.89% (Love, Irani, Smith, Regan and Liu, 2017).

The contractor's own loss, as a share of contract value:

Rework (Australian surveys)10% to 12.3%

115 civil projects and 161 professionals; one contractor's own books record 0.38%

Cost drift (Australian megaprojects)7%

Final loss for the largest contractors on 28 completed projects

Lapsed compliance (Singapore)0.25%

Accident cost; the only share-of-contract figure held, so not applied in Australia

Dashed line: planned margin, Australian civil and transport work (9.89%)

Money at stake on the job, on the same scale:

Disputes (worldwide)33.4%

Sums in dispute across 2,200+ projects in 114 countries

Cost drift (Australian rail)23%

Mean overrun from contract award, 16 projects

Missed claims (Australian public work)9% to 10.6%

Client-approved change orders and contract variations

Rework (US)5%

Direct rework, a framing figure, low confidence

Dashed line: planned margin (9.89%)

Disease by disease, the figures that matter most for an Australian job:

• Rework. About 10% of contract value in surveys of Australian civil projects, which is the whole planned margin. On 93% of projects the contractor bore it directly, losing about 23% of yearly profit. One contractor's own books recorded 0.38%, and the same study found rework is underreported by around 300% against site records. Most rework is never written down as rework.
• Missed claims. Change orders average 10.6% of contract value on Australian public infrastructure, and variations 9% in Queensland's audit. Every day that time is not claimed costs about AU$2,010 in time-related site overhead. In 246 Queensland adjudications, 37% of the amount claimed was dismissed for no jurisdiction: the claim failed on procedure, such as timing, before its merits were read. That is a watch's job.
• Disputes. Sums in dispute average 33.4% of contract value worldwide. In New Zealand adjudication the claimant's own costs run to 19.2% of the claim. In Queensland's 2019 taskforce the average unpaid subcontractor lost AU$288,000.
• Cost drift. The contractor's final loss on Australian megaprojects is 7%. The larger figures, 24% across 836 Australian transport projects (Grattan) and 20% on roads worldwide (Flyvbjerg), are the owner's overrun, and are never drawn against the contractor's margin.
• Lapsed compliance. An accident costs an Australian employer AU$97,408 on average, from a short absence to a fatality, and employers bear 19% of the total cost of work-related injury. There is no Australian figure as a share of contract value, so Protection says "not measured" for this disease in Australia rather than borrowing Singapore's.

Protection's Baseline tab now applies the nearest figure to each project's own place: a figure for its state beats one for its country, which beats a global one, and a figure from another country is never applied. Your own registers' measurement sits beside it and is never subtracted from it, because a research figure is not a measurement of your jobs.

The five-disease long read, what the five diseases cost a $5 million job, works these figures through a single job.

New: the research site and the registers repository

Two things went public this week, and neither needs an account.

research.demiton.io is where every figure above comes from. It shows no headline number. Each disease has its own page with the spread of published findings, by kind of money, drawn against the 9.89% planned margin, with the figures on hover. The Sources tab lists every study, report and audit behind them. You can filter it by jurisdiction, type and publisher, and it shows each source's contractor loss and money at stake side by side. Opening a source shows the record itself against its schema, then every finding taken from it. Obligations lists the library by place: every Australian state and territory and every New Zealand region, with zeros shown where we hold nothing, and each instrument linked to its published text.

The data behind the site is demitonapp/disease-economics, licensed CC BY 4.0. Each finding names its source, jurisdiction, confidence and kind of money. If you think a figure is wrong, open a pull request against it. A merge rebuilds the site, and the next release reaches Protection's Baseline tab.

github.com/demitonapp/registers publishes the format of every register Demiton reads and writes: what a project, a worker, a variation or a piece of plant looks like as data.

• 171 register contracts in contracts/, one JSON Schema file each, each with a semantic version.
• Every past version of each one in history/, 482 of them, so you can see exactly what a field meant on a given date.
• The four research registers behind disease-economics: what a published figure, its source and its publisher look like as data.
• A CI check that refuses a pull request whose version bump is smaller than its change. A removed field or a narrowed list is a major version, and cannot ship as a patch.

It is licensed CC BY 4.0, released as v1 on 26 September, and the register catalog in the docs is built from it. The product vendors its contracts from a pinned release, so what Demiton enforces is a version number you can look up. Next into it is the obligation library, open now as pull request #1.

The line between public and private is drawn in the repository's GOVERNANCE file. A register's shape is public. What your data looks like inside that shape is not, and never goes there.

Every obligation on your job

The protections above are only as good as the list of duties they watch. Until this week that list was 126 evidence standards for one disease. It is now an obligation library covering all five, and each project draws its obligations from seven sources:

Three sources are empty. They are in the list because they bind real jobs, and a list without them would claim a completeness it does not have.

The 135 obligations come from 34 instruments across Australia and New Zealand. What each one costs if missed:

Adding a project on the Projects tab walks through it: where the job is, what kind of work, upload the contract, then the obligations that apply, each ticked on or off. The contract read keeps the stricter reading. On an amended AS 4000 whose general conditions give 28 days for an extension of time notice and whose special conditions cut it to 10 business days, Demiton keeps 10. Every value it reads carries a confidence, and anything under that field's threshold is put in front of you to confirm.

What the library does not hold is not protected. The obligations step says how many obligations the library holds for the place and warns when the number is thin. Tasmania and the Northern Territory have no instruments of their own yet. If yours is missing, add it privately, where it stays inside your organisation, or tell us. Once the library lands in demitonapp/registers, a public proposal becomes a pull request carrying the duty and its citation, never your organisation, project or contract text, and every one is reviewed before it merges.

Here is the whole library, by place. Every row is a citation you can read at source.

Australia, national: 10 obligations

Duty	Instrument and clause	Protection	Disease	If missed
Claim an extension of time within 28 days of the delay starting	AS 2124-1992 General Conditions of Contract, cl 35.5	Watch	Missed claims	Claim barred
Notify a latent condition as soon as it is found	AS 2124-1992 General Conditions of Contract, cl 12.2, 12.4	Watch	Missed claims	Costs not recoverable
Give written notice of a claim within 28 days	AS 2124-1992 General Conditions of Contract, cl 46.1	Watch	Missed claims	Claim barred
Claim an extension of time within 28 days of the delay starting	AS 4000-1997 General Conditions of Contract, cl 34.2, 34.3, 34.5	Watch	Missed claims	Claim barred
Notify a latent condition as soon as it is found	AS 4000-1997 General Conditions of Contract, cl 25.2, 25.3	Watch	Missed claims	Costs not recoverable
Claim a variation in writing within 28 days of the direction	AS 4000-1997 General Conditions of Contract, cl 41.1-41.3	Watch	Missed claims	Damages only
Keep committed and actual cost on each cost code within its budget plus the tolerance you set	Job budget tolerance (the contractor's own commitment), section 6.1	Threshold	Cost drift	No penalty stated
Keep time and wage records for every employee for 7 years	Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), s 535	Check	Lapsed compliance	Offence
Take dated, located photographs of the site	Society of Construction Law Delay and Disruption Protocol, App B 2.2-2.3	Check	Missed claims	No penalty stated
Report payments made to building and construction contractors in the taxable payments annual report by 28 August each year	Taxation Administration Act 1953 (Cth), Schedule 1, Sch 1, s 396-55 (building and construction industry, table item)	Countdown	Lapsed compliance	Offence

Australian Capital Territory: 4 obligations

Duty	Instrument and clause	Protection	Disease	If missed
Lodge the final claim within 91 days of practical completion	NSW GC21 Edition 2 General Conditions of Contract, cll 33.3, 61, 67.1 (read in ACT v1.8)	Countdown	Disputes	Claim barred
Report RFIs and change events in the monthly report	NSW GC21 Edition 2 General Conditions of Contract, ACT v1.8 special conditions	Check	Missed claims	Breach of contract
Report RFIs and change events in the monthly report	NSW GC21 Edition 2 General Conditions of Contract, ACT v1.8 special conditions	Check	Missed claims	Breach of contract
Keep the underground services records for 24 months	Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (ACT), r 304(2), (6)	Check	Lapsed compliance	Offence

New South Wales: 23 obligations

Duty	Instrument and clause	Protection	Disease	If missed
Notify a delay within 7 days	NSW GC21 Edition 2 General Conditions of Contract, cl 50.1, 50.9	Watch	Missed claims	Reduced per day late
Claim an extension of time within 28 days of the delay starting	NSW GC21 Edition 2 General Conditions of Contract, cl 50.3	Watch	Missed claims	Reduced per day late
Update the programme within 1 months	NSW GC21 Edition 2 General Conditions of Contract, cl 22.3	Check	Missed claims	Breach of contract
Notify a latent condition as soon as it is found	NSW GC21 Edition 2 General Conditions of Contract, cl 37.3, 37.8	Watch	Missed claims	Costs not recoverable
Claim a variation in writing within 28 days of the direction	NSW GC21 Edition 2 General Conditions of Contract, cl 68.1-68.3	Watch	Missed claims	Damages only
Record day works on the day they occur	NSW GC21 Edition 2 General Conditions of Contract, Schedule 8	Check	Missed claims	No penalty stated
Notify an unordered variation within 7 days	NSW GC21 Edition 2 General Conditions of Contract, cl 48.7	Watch	Missed claims	Claim barred
Confirm a verbal direction in writing within 3 business days	NSW GC21 Edition 2 General Conditions of Contract, cl 11.2	Watch	Missed claims	No penalty stated
Apply for adjudication within 10 business days if a claim is disputed	Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 (NSW), s 17(3)	Watch	Disputes	No penalty stated
Respond to an adjudication application within 5 business days	Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 (NSW), s 20	Watch	Disputes	No penalty stated
Make a progress claim on the cadence the contract allows	Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 (NSW), s 13	Check	Disputes	No penalty stated
Make every claim a valid payment claim: identify the work and state the amount	Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 (NSW), s 13(2)	Check	Disputes	Claim barred
Be paid within 15 business days of a payment schedule (or of the claim if none is given)	Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 (NSW), s 11(1A)	Watch	Disputes	No penalty stated
Be paid within 20 business days of a payment schedule (or of the claim if none is given)	Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 (NSW), s 11(1B)	Watch	Disputes	No penalty stated
Give notice of intention to apply for adjudication within 20 business days	Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 (NSW), s 17(2)	Watch	Disputes	No penalty stated
Receive a payment schedule within 10 business days of each claim, or the full amount becomes payable	Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 (NSW), s 14(4)	Watch	Disputes	Full amount payable
Attach a supporting statement that subcontractors have been paid	Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 (NSW), s 13(7)	Check	Lapsed compliance	Offence
Maintain the retention trust ledger	Security of Payment Regulation 2020 (NSW), Security of Payment Regulation 2020	Check	Lapsed compliance	Offence
Update the programme within 1 months	TfNSW G2-C2 General Requirements (TS 01566), cl 39.2	Check	Missed claims	Breach of contract
Record wet weather days against the programme	TfNSW G2-C2 General Requirements (TS 01566), cl 43	Watch	Missed claims	Damages only
Record day works on the day they occur	TfNSW G2-C2 General Requirements (TS 01566), cl 31	Check	Missed claims	No penalty stated
Compact each earthworks lot so its characteristic relative compaction is not below Table R44.7	Transport for NSW QA Specification R44 Earthworks, cl 7.2.3, 7.2.4, Table R44.7	Threshold	Rework	Breach of contract
Keep the underground services records for 24 months	Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW), s 304(2), (6)	Check	Lapsed compliance	Offence

Queensland: 28 obligations

Duty	Instrument and clause	Protection	Disease	If missed
Notify the retention trust account within 5 business days	Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017 (Qld), ss 35, 40A, 40B	Watch	Lapsed compliance	Offence
Apply for adjudication within 30 business days if a claim is disputed	Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017 (Qld), s 79(2)(b)	Watch	Disputes	No penalty stated
Respond to an adjudication application within 10 business days	Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017 (Qld), ss 82-83	Watch	Disputes	No penalty stated
Make a progress claim on the cadence the contract allows	Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017 (Qld), ss 67, 75(4)	Check	Disputes	No penalty stated
Make every claim a valid payment claim: identify the work and state the amount	Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017 (Qld), s 68(1)	Check	Disputes	Claim barred
Be paid within 10 business days of a payment schedule (or of the claim if none is given)	Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017 (Qld), s 73(1)(b)	Watch	Disputes	No penalty stated
Give notice of intention to apply for adjudication within 30 business days	Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017 (Qld), s 99	Watch	Disputes	No penalty stated
Receive a payment schedule within 15 business days of each claim, or the full amount becomes payable	Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017 (Qld), s 76(1), s 77	Watch	Disputes	Full amount payable
Attach a supporting statement that subcontractors have been paid	Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017 (Qld), s 75(6), (8)	Check	Lapsed compliance	Offence
Notify contamination within 20 business days	Environmental Protection Act 1994 (Qld), ss 320B-320DA	Watch	Lapsed compliance	Offence
Notify contamination within 24 hours	Environmental Protection Act 1994 (Qld), ss 320B-320DA	Watch	Lapsed compliance	Offence
Notify the end of the defects liability period within 10 business days	Queensland Building and Construction Commission Act 1991, s 67NC	Watch	Disputes	Breach of contract
Hold no more retention than the statutory cap	Queensland Building and Construction Commission Act 1991, ss 67K-67N	Check	Disputes	Claim barred
Recover retention within 12 months of the defects period ending	Queensland Building and Construction Commission Act 1991, ss 67NA, 67NB	Countdown	Disputes	Offence
Challenge a set-off from retention within 28 days	Queensland Building and Construction Commission Act 1991, s 67J(2)	Watch	Missed claims	Claim barred
Lodge the final claim within 20 business days of practical completion	TMR Contract Administration Procedure CAP010M, cll 5, 37, 42 (via CAP010M)	Countdown	Disputes	Claim barred
Compact each earthworks lot so its characteristic compaction is not below the Table 15.3(b) minimum for that material and location	TMR MRTS04 General Earthworks, cl 5.5.2, Table 15.3(b)	Threshold	Rework	Breach of contract
Hand over as-constructed records within 12 months of practical completion	TMR MRTS50 Specific Quality System Requirements, cll 11.2, 12.1	Check	Rework	Claim barred
Notify a nonconformance within 1 working days	TMR MRTS50 Specific Quality System Requirements, cl 10.1.1	Watch	Rework	Breach of contract
Submit the daily report within 1 business days	Queensland TMR Transport Infrastructure Contract, cl 33.2.1, 33.2.2	Check	Missed claims	Breach of contract
Claim an extension of time within 20 business days of the delay starting	Queensland TMR Transport Infrastructure Contract, cl 35.5(c), (h), (l)	Watch	Missed claims	Claim barred
Notify a possible delay within 10 business days	Queensland TMR Transport Infrastructure Contract, cl 35.5(a)	Watch	Missed claims	Claim barred
Update the programme within 1 months	Queensland TMR Transport Infrastructure Contract, cl 33.4.9	Check	Missed claims	Breach of contract
Notify a latent condition as soon as it is found	Queensland TMR Transport Infrastructure Contract, cl 12.2, 12.4	Watch	Missed claims	Costs not recoverable
Record day works on the day they occur	Queensland TMR Transport Infrastructure Contract, cl 41(a)	Check	Missed claims	No penalty stated
Confirm a verbal direction in writing within 10 business days	Queensland TMR Transport Infrastructure Contract, cl 33.1(f), (g)	Watch	Missed claims	Claim barred
Give the prescribed notice for a variation claim within 20 business days	Queensland TMR Transport Infrastructure Contract, cl 46.1	Watch	Missed claims	Costs not recoverable
Keep the underground services records for 24 months	Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld), r 304(2), (6)	Check	Lapsed compliance	Offence

South Australia: 1 obligations

Duty	Instrument and clause	Protection	Disease	If missed
Keep the underground services records for 24 months	Work Health and Safety Regulations 2012 (SA), r 304(2), (6)	Check	Lapsed compliance	Offence

Victoria: 8 obligations

Duty	Instrument and clause	Protection	Disease	If missed
Notify contamination within the stated period	Environment Protection Act 2017 (Vic), s 40	Watch	Lapsed compliance	Offence
Apply for adjudication within 10 business days if a claim is disputed	Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 2002 (Vic), s 18(3)	Watch	Disputes	No penalty stated
Respond to an adjudication application within 5 business days	Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 2002 (Vic), s 21	Watch	Disputes	No penalty stated
Make a progress claim on the cadence the contract allows	Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 2002 (Vic), s 14A, 14D	Check	Disputes	No penalty stated
Make every claim a valid payment claim: identify the work and state the amount	Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 2002 (Vic), s 14(2)	Check	Disputes	Claim barred
Be paid within 10 business days of a payment schedule (or of the claim if none is given)	Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 2002 (Vic), s 12	Watch	Disputes	No penalty stated
Give notice of intention to apply for adjudication within 10 business days	Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 2002 (Vic), s 18(2)	Watch	Disputes	No penalty stated
Receive a payment schedule within 10 business days of each claim, or the full amount becomes payable	Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 2002 (Vic), s 15(4)	Watch	Disputes	Full amount payable

Western Australia: 16 obligations

Duty	Instrument and clause	Protection	Disease	If missed
Notify a latent condition as soon as it is found	Main Roads WA Major Works Book 2, Conditions of Contract, SCC 10 (replaces cl 12)	Watch	Missed claims	Costs not recoverable
Claim an extension of time within 14 days of the delay starting	Main Roads WA Minor Works General Conditions of Contract, GCC 9.6	Watch	Missed claims	Claim barred
Update the programme within 1 months	Main Roads WA Minor Works General Conditions of Contract, GCC 17.2, 17.4	Check	Missed claims	Breach of contract
Mark up and submit as-built redlines within 7 days	Main Roads WA Specification 201 Quality Management, cl 201.15	Watch	Rework	Breach of contract
Report a nonconformance within 24 hours	Main Roads WA Specification 201 Quality Management, cl 201.10	Watch	Rework	No penalty stated
Hand over quality records within 28 days	Main Roads WA Specification 201 Quality Management, cl 201.11	Watch	Rework	Breach of contract
Notify recourse against security within 5 business days	Building and Construction Industry (Security of Payment) Act 2021 (WA), s 57	Watch	Missed claims	Claim barred
Keep trust account records for 36 months	Building and Construction Industry (Security of Payment) Act 2021 (WA), s 79(5)	Check	Lapsed compliance	Offence
Apply for adjudication within 20 business days if a claim is disputed	Building and Construction Industry (Security of Payment) Act 2021 (WA), s 28(4)	Watch	Disputes	No penalty stated
Respond to an adjudication application within 10 business days	Building and Construction Industry (Security of Payment) Act 2021 (WA), s 34	Watch	Disputes	No penalty stated
Make a progress claim on the cadence the contract allows	Building and Construction Industry (Security of Payment) Act 2021 (WA), s 23	Check	Disputes	No penalty stated
Make every claim a valid payment claim: identify the work and state the amount	Building and Construction Industry (Security of Payment) Act 2021 (WA), s 24(1)	Check	Disputes	Claim barred
Be paid within 20 business days of a payment schedule (or of the claim if none is given)	Building and Construction Industry (Security of Payment) Act 2021 (WA), s 20(1)	Watch	Disputes	No penalty stated
Be paid within 25 business days of a payment schedule (or of the claim if none is given)	Building and Construction Industry (Security of Payment) Act 2021 (WA), s 20(1)	Watch	Disputes	No penalty stated
Give notice of intention to apply for adjudication within 20 business days	Building and Construction Industry (Security of Payment) Act 2021 (WA), s 28(2)	Watch	Disputes	No penalty stated
Receive a payment schedule within 15 business days of each claim, or the full amount becomes payable	Building and Construction Industry (Security of Payment) Act 2021 (WA), s 25(1), s 26	Watch	Disputes	Full amount payable

New Zealand, national: 44 obligations

Duty	Instrument and clause	Protection	Disease	If missed
Hold retention money in a complying trust account	Construction Contracts Act 2002 (NZ), s 18D, 18E, 18FB, 18DA	Check	Lapsed compliance	Offence
Notify use of retention for a defect within 10 working days	Construction Contracts Act 2002 (NZ), s 18C(3)(c), 18DA(3)	Watch	Disputes	Claim barred
Maintain a ledger of the retention trust account	Construction Contracts Act 2002 (NZ), s 18E(4)-(6), 18EA	Check	Disputes	No penalty stated
Give the retention trust account records to whoever the Act names	Construction Contracts Act 2002 (NZ), s 18FC	Check	Lapsed compliance	Offence
Determine which retention regime applies to the contract	Construction Contracts Act 2002 (NZ), Sch 1 cl 1	Check	Disputes	No penalty stated
Release retention on the terms the Act sets	Construction Contracts Act 2002 (NZ), s 18I, 18G	Check	Disputes	No penalty stated
Report the retention money held every 3 months	Construction Contracts Act 2002 (NZ), s 18FD	Check	Lapsed compliance	Offence
Keep the retention trust account in the status the Act requires	Construction Contracts Act 2002 (NZ), s 18B(2)-(6), 18C	Check	Disputes	No penalty stated
Respond to an adjudication claim within 5 working days	Construction Contracts Act 2002 (NZ), s 36(1), 37(1), 37A, 46(1)(b)	Watch	Disputes	Claim barred
Give the adjudication notice the Act requires	Construction Contracts Act 2002 (NZ), s 28; Regs r 5	Watch	Disputes	No penalty stated
Agree on an adjudicator within 5 working days of the adjudication notice	Construction Contracts Act 2002 (NZ), s 33(2), 35(1)	Watch	Disputes	No penalty stated
Make a progress claim on the cadence the contract allows	Construction Contracts Act 2002 (NZ), s 20(1), 17(2)	Check	Disputes	No penalty stated
Make every claim a valid payment claim: identify the work and state the amount	Construction Contracts Act 2002 (NZ), s 20(2)	Check	Disputes	No penalty stated
Attach the prescribed Form 1 notice to every payment claim	Construction Contracts Act 2002 (NZ), s 20(3)-(4); Regs r 4, Sch 1 Form 1	Check	Disputes	Breach of contract
Issue the adjudicator's determination within 20 working days	Construction Contracts Act 2002 (NZ), s 46(2)	Watch	Disputes	Breach of contract
Be paid within 20 working days where the contract is silent	Construction Contracts Act 2002 (NZ), s 18	Watch	Disputes	Full amount payable
Recover the amount owed if payment is not made by the due date	Construction Contracts Act 2002 (NZ), s 23, 24	Watch	Disputes	Full amount payable
Make a payment schedule that identifies the claim and the scheduled amount	Construction Contracts Act 2002 (NZ), s 21	Check	Disputes	Claim barred
Receive a payment schedule within 20 working days of each claim, or the full amount becomes payable	Construction Contracts Act 2002 (NZ), s 22	Watch	Disputes	Full amount payable
Give 5 working days notice before suspending work for non-payment	Construction Contracts Act 2002 (NZ), s 24A	Watch	Disputes	No penalty stated
Keep committed and actual cost on each cost code within its budget plus the tolerance you set	Job budget tolerance (the contractor's own commitment), section 6.1	Threshold	Cost drift	No penalty stated
Provide the contractor's bond within 2 months	NZS 3910:2013 Conditions of Contract (2013/DZ public-comment redline), cl 3.1.2-3.1.7	Watch	Disputes	Claim barred
Notify defects within the 3 months defects notification period	NZS 3910:2013 Conditions of Contract (2013/DZ public-comment redline), DZ cl 11.1, 11.2.1	Check	Disputes	No penalty stated
Lodge the final payment claim within 1 months of the defects period ending	NZS 3910:2013 Conditions of Contract (2013/DZ public-comment redline), cl 12.4.1	Countdown	Disputes	Claim barred
Issue the final payment schedule within 20 working days	NZS 3910:2013 Conditions of Contract (2013/DZ public-comment redline), cl 12.5	Countdown	Disputes	No penalty stated
Make a progress claim on the cadence the contract states	NZS 3910:2013 Conditions of Contract (2013/DZ public-comment redline), cl 12.1.2, 12.2.1, 12.2.8	Check	Disputes	Breach of contract
Release retention within 10 working days of practical completion (or the defects period ending)	NZS 3910:2013 Conditions of Contract (2013/DZ public-comment redline), cl 12.3.3; DZ 12.3.4, 12.3.7	Watch	Disputes	Breach of contract
Decide an extension of time claim within 20 working days	NZS 3910:2013 Conditions of Contract (2013/DZ public-comment redline), cl 10.3.5	Watch	Missed claims	No penalty stated
Give notice of an extension of time claim within 20 working days	NZS 3910:2013 Conditions of Contract (2013/DZ public-comment redline), cl 10.3.2	Watch	Missed claims	No penalty stated
Submit the programme within 20 working days	NZS 3910:2013 Conditions of Contract (2013/DZ public-comment redline), cl 5.10.1-5.10.4	Watch	Missed claims	Claim barred
Give full details of an unforeseen physical condition	NZS 3910:2013 Conditions of Contract (2013/DZ public-comment redline), cl 9.5.3	Watch	Lapsed compliance	No penalty stated
Notify an unforeseen physical condition as soon as practicable	NZS 3910:2013 Conditions of Contract (2013/DZ public-comment redline), cl 9.5.2, 9.5.4	Watch	Lapsed compliance	No penalty stated
Adverse weather is excluded from an extension of time claim	NZS 3910:2013 Conditions of Contract (2013/DZ public-comment redline), cl 9.5.1	Check	Lapsed compliance	No penalty stated
Record day works on the day they occur	NZS 3910:2013 Conditions of Contract (2013/DZ public-comment redline), cl 9.4.3	Check	Missed claims	No penalty stated
Notify a variation claim within 1 months of the instruction	NZS 3910:2013 Conditions of Contract (2013/DZ public-comment redline), cl 9.2.2	Watch	Missed claims	No penalty stated
Notify any other matter affecting time or cost within 1 months	NZS 3910:2013 Conditions of Contract (2013/DZ public-comment redline), cl 9.2.3	Watch	Missed claims	No penalty stated
Propose the value of a variation within 1 months of the instruction	NZS 3910:2013 Conditions of Contract (2013/DZ public-comment redline), cl 9.3.2	Watch	Missed claims	No penalty stated
Respond to a variation notice within 1 months	NZS 3910:2013 Conditions of Contract (2013/DZ public-comment redline), cl 9.2.4	Watch	Missed claims	No penalty stated
Submit the final account within 3 months of practical completion	NZS 3910:2023 Conditions of Contract (secondary summaries; DZ draft), cl 9.11	Countdown	Disputes	Claim barred
Give an early warning of an event likely to affect time or cost	NZS 3910:2023 Conditions of Contract (secondary summaries; DZ draft), DZ cl 6.10	Watch	Missed claims	No penalty stated
Give notice of an extension of time claim within 20 working days	NZS 3910:2023 Conditions of Contract (secondary summaries; DZ draft), cl 10.3.2 (2023); DZ 10.3.6(c)	Watch	Missed claims	No penalty stated
Notify a variation claim within 20 working days of the instruction	NZS 3910:2023 Conditions of Contract (secondary summaries; DZ draft), cl 9.2.2	Watch	Missed claims	No penalty stated
Notify any other matter affecting time or cost within 20 working days	NZS 3910:2023 Conditions of Contract (secondary summaries; DZ draft), cl 9.2.3	Watch	Missed claims	No penalty stated
Respond to a variation notice within 20 working days	NZS 3910:2023 Conditions of Contract (secondary summaries; DZ draft), cl 9.2.5	Watch	Missed claims	No penalty stated

Auckland: 1 obligations

Duty	Instrument and clause	Protection	Disease	If missed
Report RFIs and change events in the monthly report	Auckland Transport NZS 3910:2013 Special Conditions, cl 5.23.8	Watch	Missed claims	Breach of contract

Also this week

• One price. Free covers your first AU$1M under watch. Baseline is AU$55,000 a year, flat to AU$100M under watch, with a margin bonus of 25% of cash recovered on the first AU$1M recovered in a year and 12.5% above it. It is charged on cash recovered only, signed off by you. Avoided cost is recorded and never billed. Insights is no longer sold.
• Onboarding starts with the contract. Where you operate is asked once, then a contract is uploaded, because every protection above keys on a window or a date the contract sets. Protection is now the home page.
• HammerTech, read-only, is the first writer for certificates of currency and the certification register, the two lapsed compliance registers nothing had filled.

What's next

Flip the switch, so the obligations you tick on each project decide exactly what runs. Then the thing this post has waited three weeks to report: the first protection that fires on a live job, catches something real, and is signed off with cash in the bank. When it happens, it goes here with the date.

If your contract form or your state has an obligation the 135 do not, tell us or open a pull request. The clause is public. Knowing which ones bite is not.