Payment Terms in Commercial Contracts - Preparing for the Commercial Payments Bill

Introduction

The Commercial Payments Bill introduces a series of significant changes to the rules on interest and payment terms typically found in commercial contracts. These changes will apply to contracts entered into after the relevant provisions come into force.

It is therefore essential that lawyers and their clients have these changes on their radar and understand what changes will need to be made to their contract documents.

This webinar summarises the key issues that should be addressed in payment clauses and sets out the changes that will need to be made under the new rules.

What You Will Learn

This webinar will cover the following:

• Payment terms
• New rules about the maximum length of period for payment
• Public sector - 30 days
• Private sector - 60 days
• Exempt contracts
• Statutory rate of interest
• Statutory interest rate of BOE + 8% to apply automatically
• Removal of the concept of ‘substantial contractual remedy’
• Late raising of disputes
• Notification after last dispute day
• Notification with insufficient information on or before last dispute day
• Recovery of fixed sum or up to 1% of contract price
• Enforcement
• Powers of the Small Business Commissioner
• Adjudication scheme
• Financial penalties - up to 1% of turnover