How do I give notice that I'm pausing work for non-payment?
The short answer
Seven days, in construction. The 1996 Construction Act says you may not suspend without at least seven days' notice1 stating the ground, and only a sum notified as due and unpaid past its final date for payment2 gives you the right. Done properly, the client also owes the reasonable costs of the pause1, and time limits on the work it holds up move by the days you were stopped. Outside construction, only your contract can let you pause.
England and Wales only. WolfX is software, not a law firm.
What you can add
An £18,600 stage payment, 32 days unpaid
Say you are a dry-lining subcontractor with an £18,600 stage payment notified as due. The final date for payment was Friday 18 September 2026. It is unpaid and no pay less notice came. You hand a notice to the client's site office and email it on Monday 12 October. The seven days run from 13 to 19 October, with no bank holiday in them, so you suspend from Tuesday 20 October, the earliest day the Act allows. Interest began on 19 September 2026. If your contract sets no rate of its own, the law sets one9, fixed on 30 June 202611 at 3.75% Bank Rate12 plus 8%: 11.75% a year.
Then it grows by £5.99 a day until they pay. On top, the client owes the reasonable costs of the pause1. If the sum is still unpaid, the next move is adjudication.
The road ahead
Six steps. No fees.
Step 2: Find the unpaid sum
You need a notified sum. It comes from a payment notice3: theirs, or yours where the contract has you give it. If they gave none, your default notice4 sets it, and the final date for payment is pushed back by the days you left it. The sum must be unpaid after that date.
If a valid pay less notice cut the sum, you can suspend only for what it left due.
Step 3: Write the notice
Use the letter below. It names section 112, states the ground, says which work stops and gives a start date. The seven days start the day after it reaches them, not the day you wrote it, and Christmas Day, Good Friday and bank holidays are left out6. Stop no sooner than the day after the seventh day; a spare day costs little.
Step 4: Deliver it so you can prove it
Follow the contract's notice clause first. Otherwise any effective means5 will do, and a letter posted to their registered or principal office counts as served. Hand it to the site office and email it too. Proving it arrived is its own page.
Step 5: On the start date, stop what the notice names
Stop only that work. Make the site safe, take nothing away, damage nothing, and log each day and each cost as it happens.
A letter you can copy
Notice of intention to suspend work
Send it when a notified sum is unpaid past its final date for payment, no pay less notice has cut it, and the job is a construction contract.
Tap a highlighted gap to see what goes in it.
Hand a signed copy to the site office and email it the same day, to the address in the contract's notice clause if it has one. Keep both, with the time sent. Not a construction job? Only a suspension clause in the contract can give you the right. Send one line under it: 'Under clause 9, I give notice that I will suspend the work from 20 October 2026 unless invoice 4502 is paid in full.'
When not to bother
When it isn't worth it
- It isn't construction work, or your client lives or will live in the home. Then only a suspension clause in your contract lets you pause. The Act excludes a contract with a residential occupier8, not a subcontract on that job.
- A pay less notice was sent in time. The right then covers only the sum it left due. Dispute the rest through adjudication.
- You can't point to a notified sum. With no payment notice or default notice, there is no sum for the right to rest on. Check the contract and ask a construction solicitor before you stop.
- It's a few days late from a client who pays on time. A call costs nothing, and the notice starts a formal clock. Send it when the call has not worked.
- Stopping would cost you more than the debt. Idle labour is a real cost. Weigh it against the sum before you name a date.
The Wolf's note
Seven days is the price of doing this properly. Put the ground in the first paragraph so a stranger could check it, count the seven days clear of bank holidays, and keep the copy. From the day it lands, the client is the one with a clock.
Mr. Wolf · the AI inside WolfX
What comes next
Your next move
On a building job
What is a pay less notice, and what happens if the client didn't send one?
In full. Without a valid pay less notice in time, a construction client must pay the whole notified sum by the final date, whatever the work was worth.
7 min read · Letter included
How do I end a contract for non-payment?
Only if your contract allows it, or the non-payment is serious.
6 min read · Letter included
If they push back
Can I hold back files, or switch off a website, until I'm paid?
You can usually hold back files you have not delivered.
7 min read · Letter included
Don't want to do this yourself?
The Wolf does every step for you. He works out the sums, writes the letters and keeps track of every date. Nothing goes without your yes.