The main contractor hasn't paid me. Can I go to the client instead?
The short answer
Usually not. Your contract is with the main contractor, so the debt is theirs; you can claim from the client only if you hold a contract with them or the main contract lets you enforce a term against them5. And “the client hasn't paid” is usually no excuse: in a construction contract, a clause that makes your pay wait for theirs (“pay when paid”) is ineffective1, unless the client, or anyone further up the chain whose payment the client waits on, is insolvent.
England and Wales only. WolfX is software, not a law firm.
What you can add
A £12,800 application, two months overdue
Say you plaster for a main contractor on an office refurbishment. Your sub-contract sets 31 July 2026 as the final date for payment of your £12,800 application, but adds that the main contractor need pay only after the client has paid it. The main contractor's payment notice agreed the £12,800 and it sent no pay less notice (the formal notice that it will pay less). On 30 September it is still unpaid: 61 days late. The client is not insolvent, so the “only after the client has paid it” wording is ineffective and the date stands. Interest is 8% over the Bank of England base rate10: 11.75% a year11 for anything that went late between 1 July and 31 December 2026.
Then it grows by £4.12 a day until they pay. Whether the client has paid the main contractor changes none of these numbers.
The road ahead
Six steps. Step 4 is for public jobs, step 5 for private.
Step 1: Look for a line to the client
Read what you signed and the main contract. A person outside a contract can enforce a term5 if it says they may, or is meant to benefit them and the parties did not rule that out. The contract must name or describe them. Look for an order from the client, a collateral warranty you signed (check it for a promise to pay), or a direct-payment clause.
If the main contractor fails, a client may choose to pay you direct to keep the job going, but it is not bound to. One that has already paid in full, a homeowner say, has nothing left to send.
Step 2: Check the pay-when-paid clause can't hold
Your sub-contract may say you are paid when the main contractor is. In a construction contract that is ineffective1, unless the client, or anyone further up the chain whose payment the client waits on, is insolvent.
Check the job is construction work4, then whether the client is insolvent.
For a company that means administration, a receiver, a creditors' voluntary liquidation or a winding-up order1; a partnership or a person has its own list. Slow is not insolvent.
Step 3: Write to the main contractor
Send the letter below to the main contractor, not the client. It gives the final date for payment, says the clause can't hold, adds interest and the fixed sum (unless your sub-contract has its own real late-payment charge9) and asks for payment by a date. A reply, even a no, gives you something dated to act on.
No payment notice from them, or no date but “when the client pays”? Read the pay less notice page first. Your own application or notice may fix the sum, and where you agreed no other payment terms the Scheme for Construction Contracts1 sets the dates.
Step 4: Public job: raise it with the review service
On a public contract let under the Procurement Act 2023, the payer has 30 days from getting the invoice to pay6, and that term is implied in every public sub-contract7. A term that overrides it has no effect.
That term does not cover an invoice the payer calls invalid or disputes, or school, concession and private-utility contracts.
The Public Procurement Review Service takes late-payment complaints about valid, undisputed invoices from anywhere in the chain8, through a form. Its recommendations don't bind, it excludes devolved Welsh bodies, and it pauses if you start legal action, a pre-action letter included.
Step 5: Private job: use a direct-payment clause
A direct-payment clause is one that lets the client pay you direct. If either contract has one, read the steps it sets, then write to the client's project manager with the facts only: the sum, the dates, that it is unpaid. No threats, and check your sub-contract allows the contact. No such clause? Leave this step.
Step 6: Stop work, adjudicate, or send a letter before action
If the sum in the payment notice is unpaid after the final date, you can stop work on at least seven days' notice2, and the main contractor then owes your reasonable costs of stopping. The stop-work page has the steps.
Or refer the dispute to an adjudicator, who has 28 days from the referral3 to decide unless more is agreed. The decision binds until a court, an arbitrator or an agreement replaces it. Adjudication, step by step.
A letter before action and a court claim stay open if you would rather not adjudicate.
A letter you can copy
Letter to a main contractor that is waiting on its client
Send it once the final date for payment has passed and a reminder has not worked. It goes to the main contractor, not the client.
Tap a highlighted gap to see what goes in it.
Email it to the person at the main contractor who approves payments, so it is dated, and keep a copy with your application and their payment notice. Leave the client off it. The debt is the main contractor's, and your sub-contract may restrict contact. Send it only after you have checked the client is not insolvent (step 2). If it is, have a solicitor who does construction disputes read your terms first.
When not to bother
When it isn't worth it
- The main contractor is going under. A notice or an adjudication usually won't produce money from a company with none. Once a liquidator is in, send a proof of debt instead.
- It isn't construction work. Just delivering materials or plant isn't4, so the pay-when-paid ban doesn't apply and the clause may hold. A solicitor who does construction disputes can read your terms.
- The sum is small and you want the repeat work. One call asking for a date may do more than a letter. Keep the letter for when the call fails.
- The Small Business Commissioner is not an option for construction work. It doesn't take it: the Construction Act gives you adjudication instead.
- The job is in Scotland or Northern Ireland. This page covers England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland use different rules and routes, so ask a local construction solicitor.
The Wolf's note
The client has the building, so the client feels like the right door. The door that opens is the main contractor's own paperwork: its payment notice, its final date, and a clause the law switches off while the client is solvent. What the client owes them is theirs to carry, not yours.
Mr. Wolf · the AI inside WolfX
What comes next
Your next move
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
Put it in writing
How do I give notice that I'm pausing work for non-payment?
Seven days' notice that states the ground, on a construction job where a notified sum is unpaid.
6 min read · Letter included
If they go under
A company that owes me money has gone into liquidation. What happens to my invoice?
Your invoice joins a queue behind lenders, the costs, wages and some HMRC debts, so suppliers usually get little.
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.