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Victorian cases establish that a statutory payment claim is not invalid by reason of it being served before a reference date. These authorities are likely to be revisited in the light of recent decisions of the High Court of Australia and the New South Wales Court of Appeal.

The validity of an adjudication is conditional upon the adjudicator performing the statutory task of assessing the amount of construction work and its value. In the same case, judicial review in relation to the adjudicator’s alleged incorrect finding of an available reference date was pursued, but only formally in light of Lewence [2015] NSWCA 288.

Nature and extent of details required to be included in a valid payment claim under the Building & Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 2002 (Vic) Act (the Act), and the assessment process required to be undertaken by an Adjudicator to determine the value of claims to avoid jurisdictional error

Whether the Court would be best assisted by a report from a special referee under O. 50 of the Supreme Court (General Civil Procedure) Rules (Vic) 2015 and or an assessor under s. 77 of the Supreme Court Act 1986 (Vic) and s. 65M of the Civil Procedure Act 2010 (Vic) (CPA)

Will a Payment Claim under the BCISOP Act be valid if it:

1. only claims for work not previously claimed in an earlier payment claim made pursuant to an earlier reference date; and / or,
2.  does not contain a claim for work performed since the last reference date ?