Sometimes it becomes unclear who the parties are to a contract. This can occur where there is an oral contract or where there are multiple entities involved. It is highly recommended that before you start you make sure who you are really dealing with.

If you can’t identify the correct name of the other party, their ABN/ACN, their place of business or registered address and their contact details then you may fail (on technical grounds) to win your claim.  Alarm bells should be ringing.

For example you may think you are working for Bob Smith from “Spanish Homes” but after some investigation you may find out that “Spanish Homes” is an unregistered trading name and that the actual name of the company you are dealing with is “All Things Spanish Pty Ltd“.  So your contract may be with “All Things Spanish Pty Ltd” rather than “Spanish Homes” and your previous tax invoices and payment claims have been incorrectly addressed.

Why is this important? Because you can’t take legal action against a trading name. The other party has to be a legal entity such as a person, a partnership, a Pty Ltd company, a corporation etc.

In fact they may not be paying you or even responding to you because they know you are not claiming against the correctly named entity OR you are sending the correspondence to the wrong addresses.

So do your homework before you start.

The person who compiles your various Security of Payment documents such as the payment claim and adjudication application may ask you to properly identify not only the other party but also yourself. Do you know your correct business name and ABN?  Its surprising how many people do not.

So be prepared and search for the information before you make a claim through resources such as:

1. Contract signature page;
2. Letter of intent;
3. Quotations;
4. Tax Invoices previously paid (eg bank details);
5. Correspondence in relation to the Contract identifying a party;
6. ASIC details;
7. Business name details (Govt websites, Company websites, letterheads, business cards etc).

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