Contractors beware, the Electronic Transactions Legislation Amendment (Government Transactions) Bill 2017 recently received Assent by the New South Wales Parliament, the effect of which enacted the Electronic Transactions Legislation Amendment (Government Transactions) Act 2017 (NSW) (the Act). The Act makes amendments to the provisions of the Building and Construction Industry (Security of Payment) Act 1999 (NSW) (SOPA) affecting the service of notices.

Relevance to you?

Provision is made in the Act for an amendment to section 31 of the SOPA. Service of a notice under the Act is no longer effected by facsimile unless the Contract itself specifically permits service by facsimile.

Further and more importantly, any notices, including payment claims, payment schedules and adjudication applications which are required to be served in accordance with SOPA, can now be served via email.   The relevant email address can be any email address notified by the recipient of the sender as being an address for service of such notices.

To avoid the consequences of missing deadlines provided by SOPA, contractors will need to ensure that those email addresses notified as being an address for service are constantly monitored even in the absence of the recipient email addressee.

For more information, please contact ERA Legal.