James Frampton
September 2026
A paper presented to a meeting of the SCL in London on 9 December 2025 and published in the SCL Journal: Summer 2026
This paper explores the current state of the law on the validity of payment applications, payment notices and payless notices, focusing on four key cases, in three of which the author appeared as Counsel: Placefirst Construction Ltd v Car Construction (North East) Ltd, Jaevee Homes Ltd v Mr Steve Fincham (trading as Fincham Demolition), RBH Building Contractors Ltd v Ashley James, Tracy James and Vision Construct Ltd v Gypcraft Drylining Contractors Ltd. The author suggests two lessons that can be learned from these cases.
Introduction – Case 1: Placefirst v Car [2025] EWHC 100 (TCC) – (1) Did Placefirst serve what was (objectively) intended to be a payment notice? – (2) Was Placefirst’s payless notice invalid because it was served (Car said) too early? – Case 2: Jaevee Homes Ltd v Mr Steve Fincham (trading as Fincham Demolition) – Substance of the invoices – Timing of the invoices – Case 3: RBH Building Contractors Ltd v Ashley James, Tracy James – Case 4: Vision Construct Ltd v Gypcraft Drylining Contractors Ltd – Concluding thoughts
The author: James Frampton is a barrister practising from Keating Chambers
Text: 16 pages