- The date
- The Building Legislation Amendment (Fairer Payments on Jobsites and Other Matters) Act 2025 (Vic), No. 43/2025, received assent on 13 November 2025 and commenced on 15 April 2026.
- What was repealed
- ss 10A–10B: "claimable variations" and "excluded amounts". A disputed variation on a contract over $5 million with a dispute-resolution clause, or once disputed variations exceeded 10% of the contract sum, was an excluded amount. Now it is not.
- What arrived
- s 13A: an adjudicator, court, arbitrator or expert may declare a notice-based time bar unfair for a particular entitlement, on the applicant's proof.
- Old contracts
- Covered. The new rules apply whatever the contract's date, except that a payment claim served, or an adjudication application made but undetermined, before 15 April 2026 keeps the old Part 3 procedure (s 54).
- What is still open
- Whether s 13A reaches a written-direction requirement such as AS 4000 cl 36.1 (1997 and 2025 editions). No decision located.
For almost two decades, since ss 10A–10B were inserted in 2006, Victoria was the one Australian jurisdiction where the largest disputed number on a large project, the variation account, often could not go to adjudication. On 15 April 2026 that ended. The "claimable variation" gateway in ss 10A–10B of the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 2002 (Vic) is repealed, and a new s 13A lets a decision-maker set aside an unfair notice-based time bar for a particular entitlement. What a variation is, and who must direct it, is still answered by Australian contract law. How quickly a disputed one is paid is now a Victorian question with a Victorian answer.
This is the Victorian orientation page of the Australian variations cluster. The working detail, with the statute quoted, is on adjudicating the variation account in Victoria.
A note on sources. Section 13A, the transitional provision in s 54, ss 12(1)(b), 12(1B), 14C and 21(2)(d), and the Act's endnotes were read from the authorised Victorian PDF (version 015). The repealed ss 10A–10B and the pre-reform s 21(2B) were read from authorised version 013. The performance-security and reference-date changes are reported from law-firm summaries and labelled as such.
What changed on 15 April 2026
The amending Act is the Building Legislation Amendment (Fairer Payments on Jobsites and Other Matters) Act 2025 (Vic), No. 43/2025. The Act's endnotes record assent on 13 November 2025 and commencement of all but two provisions on 15 April 2026. Four changes matter for variations.
1 · The gateway is gone. Sections 10A and 10B were "repealed by No. 43/2025 s. 9". Read from the pre-reform authorised version (version 013), s 10A made a disputed variation claimable only if the respondent had requested or directed the work and the contract sum was $5 million or less, or the contract had no method of resolving disputes. Once disputed variations exceeded 10% of the contract sum, the $5 million figure became $150,000. Section 10B excluded any other variation. It also excluded, unless they were claimable variations, amounts claimed as compensation for an event (including latent conditions, time-related costs and changes in regulatory requirements), damages for breach, and claims arising at law outside the contract. Since 15 April there is no class of variation that the Act excludes from the calculation of a progress payment (subject to s 54(2) for claims already served).
2 · The respondent has to answer on the merits. "Excluded amount" used to dispose of a disputed variation whatever the payment schedule said. Now the schedule has to give real reasons. Section 21(2)(d) of the amended Act bars an adjudication response from raising a reason for withholding payment that was not in the payment schedule. Before 15 April 2026, s 21(2B) allowed new reasons, with a two-business-day reply for the claimant.
3 · A missed notice may be recoverable. New s 13A lets an adjudicator, court, arbitrator or expert declare a notice-based time bar unfair where compliance "is not reasonably possible" or "would be unreasonably onerous". The declaration applies to one entitlement, in the adjudication or proceeding in which it is made (s 13A(3)), and the party alleging unfairness carries the onus.
4 · Old contracts are in. Section 54(1) applies the amended Act to contracts entered into "before, on or after" commencement. Section 54(2) keeps the old Part 3 procedure only for a payment claim served, or an adjudication application made but not determined, before 15 April 2026.
The same Act also abolished reference dates, extended the last payment claim to six months after practical completion, capped payment terms at 20 business days, and required five business days' notice before recourse to performance security. (The six-month limit (s 14C) and the 20-business-day cap (s 12(1B)) were read from authorised version 015; the 20-business-day figure comes from an extraction truncated at that point. The abolition of reference dates and the performance-security notice are from firm summaries (Ashurst, MinterEllison, Holding Redlich, White & Case).)
Why Victoria now differs from the rest of Australia
It used to differ by excluding. Now it differs by rescuing.
No other Australian security-of-payment Act located has an excluded-amounts regime (Jones Day's 2020 national survey describes Victoria's as unique); New South Wales, Queensland and the others let a disputed variation into adjudication all along. With the repeal, Victoria converges with them on what can be adjudicated.
It diverges on notice. Only two Australian statutes were located that let a decision-maker set aside a contractual notice bar: Victoria's s 13A and Western Australia's s 16, for WA contracts from 1 August 2022. No reported decision applying WA s 16 was located, so it offers Victoria no interpretive guidance. Queensland has no equivalent power; elsewhere a missed variation notice is answered by ordinary contract law.
And s 13A reaches back. Because s 54(1) applies the amended Act to contracts already signed, a notice-based time bar provision (as s 13A(8) defines it) in a live Victorian construction contract is now exposed to it. Section 13A sits in Part 2 of the Act, and s 54(2) preserves only the old Part 3 rules. Whether s 13A can be invoked in an adjudication of a payment claim served before 15 April 2026 is not answered by s 54's words. (Inference.)
The open questions
Three questions are unanswered, and each is set out at its real strength on the working page.
- Does s 13A reach a written-direction requirement? AS 4000 cl 36.1 (Directing Variations), in the 1997 edition as in the 2025 edition, allows a variation only on the Superintendent's written direction before the Date of Practical Completion. Whether that is a "notice-based time bar provision" at all is undecided. No decision applying s 13A was located on AustLII (searched to about June 2026).
- Does s 13A reach notice of an event? Its definition of notice does not expressly include one. The definition is inclusive ("includes"), so it is not excluded either. Commentary flags the gap; it is untested.
- What happens to a variation in a payment claim served before 15 April 2026? Section 54(2) preserves the old Part 3 procedure, but ss 10A–10B sat in Part 2. (Inference; not resolved by s 54's words.)
Where to go next
| If your question is | Go to |
|---|---|
| Can I adjudicate this variation now, and what does s 13A actually say? | Adjudicating the variation account in Victoria |
| Was it validly directed at all, and does AS 4000 or AS 2124 apply? | Variations in Australia |
| What should the notice say so I never need s 13A? | Variation notice and claim templates |
| How does the same statute treat delay money? | Security of payment and adjudication in Australia |
| How does s 13A apply to an EOT notice? | Notice and time bars in Australia |
For the jurisdiction-neutral treatment of the same doctrine, see the variations pillar.
Authorities
- Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 2002 (Vic) As amended by No. 43/2025 (commenced 15 April 2026) and No. 22/2026 (ss 77–81, commenced 24 June 2026); authorised version 015ss 10A–10B repealed by No. 43/2025 s 9; s 13A inserted by s 13; s 54 transitional provisions. The amended Act applies to contracts entered into before, on or after commencement, subject to s 54(2).s 13A, s 54, ss 12(1)(b), 12(1B), 14C, 21(2)(d) and the endnotes read from authorised version 015 on 26 September 2026. The repealed ss 10A–10B and pre-reform s 21(2B) read from authorised version 013 (as at 1 February 2024). The performance-security and reference-date changes are from firm summaries.legislation.vic.gov.au (authorised version 015) →
About this material Library content is general information about construction claim practice, not legal advice. Entitlement, deadlines and procedure are governed by your own contract and by the law of the place the work is performed. Reviewed September 26, 2026 · Report a correction