Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
certificate?
Usually, the term 'negative certificate' refers to a certificate that shows a negative amount
owing from the employer to the contractor - in other words, a certificate indicating that the
contractor has already been paid too much. This raises three questions:
1
2
Are there any occasions when an architect may issue such a certificate?
Ifyestoquestion1,isthecontractorthenobligedtopaythenegativeamounttotheem-
ployer?
If yes to question 2, do the provisions about notices, particularly pay less notices, work
in reverse?
3
If one looks at the JCT Standard Building Contract (SBC), there is nothing that states that
the architect may issue a negative interim certificate. On the other hand, there is nothing to
say that the architect may not issue one.
Interim certificates are dealt with under clause 4. Clause 4.10.1 states that the architect
must issue interim certificates 'stating the sum that he considers to be or to have been due at
theduedatetotheContractor'.Clause 4.9states theduedatesforinterim certificates. There
seems at first sight to be nothing that entitles the architect to issue a negative interim certi-
ficate. Indeed, everything points to certificates stating payments due to the contractor only.
The provisions for the issue of the final certificate are the only ones which recognise that
there may be a payment due to the employer.
However, clause 4.19.2, referring to the amount stated as due in an interim certificate,
provides that it must be the gross valuation less certain other permitted deductions and the
amountpreviouslycertifiedorpaidinrespectofaninterimpaymentnotice.Itisclear,there-
fore, that if the amount previously certified and/or paid and the permitted deductions are
together more than the gross valuation, any certificate then issued would be showing a neg-
ativeamount.Inpractice,thissituationcaneasilyariseifapreviouscertificateisovervalued
by more than the total of the work done between the issue of the previous certificate and the
new certificate, so that the contractor has not carried out work to the value of the overvalu-
ation in the intervening period.
Even in this situation, the standard certification forms issued by RIBA Enterprises are,
quite rightly, not worded so as to allow the architect to require payment of the balance by
thecontractor,andanarchitectwhoissuesthecertificateintheformofaletterisnotentitled
by the contract to word it in any other way. The inescapable conclusion is that the architect
may issue a negative certificate, because that is the result of applying the calculation set out
inthecontract.However,thereisnoprovisionforthearchitecttocertifyapaymentfromthe
