Under CIPAA 2012 (Act 746) a payment response is due within 10 working days of the payment claim (s 6(3)), an adjudication decision within 45 working days (s 12(2)), and payment of an adjudicated sum within 30 calendar days (s 36(4)). The 2024 amendment, Act A1738, in force 1 January 2026, changes none of these. It renames KLRCA to the AIAC and the Director to the President of the AIAC Court. Any summary telling you the timelines tightened is wrong against the gazette.
Read from the primary text of Act 746. Check any line against the Act — that is the point of printing the section beside it.
| Stage | Period | Act 746 |
|---|---|---|
| Payment response to a payment claim | 10 working days | s 6(3) |
| Adjudication claim after notice | 10 working days | s 9(1) |
| Adjudication response | 10 working days | s 10(1) |
| Adjudication reply | 5 working days | s 11(1) |
| Parties agree on an adjudicator | 10 working days | s 21(a) |
| AIAC appoints on request | 5 working days | s 23(1) |
| Adjudicator accepts or declines | 10 working days | ss 22(2), 23(2) |
| Adjudication decision | 45 working days | s 12(2)(a)–(b) |
| Notice before suspending work | 14 calendar days | s 29(2)–(3) |
| Resume after payment | 10 working days | s 29(4)(d) |
| Direct payment from principal | 10 working days | s 30(2) |
| Payment of an adjudicated sum | 30 calendar days | s 36(4) |
General information on the statute, not legal advice on your contract. Where a period runs in working days, the count depends on the state your site sits in — see below.
Act A1738 came into force on 1 January 2026. Read in full against the gazette, it substitutes the Asian International Arbitration Centre for the Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration, and the President of the AIAC Court for the Director, with the consequential and savings provisions that follow. That is the substance of it.
Payment response: still 10 working days. Adjudication decision: still 45 working days. Default payment under s 36: still 30 calendar days. Not one day-count moved.
If your payment strategy rests on a timeline someone paraphrased from a summary, you are exposed. The clocks that bind you are in Act 746, unchanged.
Section 4 of Act 746 counts working days by the weekends and gazetted public holidays applicable where the site is. Johor, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu run a Friday–Saturday weekend; the rest of the country runs Saturday–Sunday. State holiday tables differ again.
So a Johor site and a Selangor site, served on the same day, reach the same statutory deadline on different calendar dates. Get the state wrong and a 10-working-day response window can be out by several days — enough to lose it.
Moorstack models this per site, and says plainly when a state's holiday table has not been loaded rather than quietly guessing a date. An unverified deadline is more dangerous than an obvious gap. See how the payment clock sits alongside progress claims.
Ten working days from service of the payment claim, under s 6(3) of Act 746. If no payment response is served within that period, the unpaid party is deemed to have disputed the entire claim under s 6(4) — which is what opens the door to adjudication. Working days are counted by the state where the site sits; see the note on s 4 below.
No. Act A1738, the Construction Industry Payment and Adjudication (Amendment) Act 2024, came into force on 1 January 2026. Read against the gazette, it renames the Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration to the Asian International Arbitration Centre and the Director to the President of the AIAC Court, with consequential and savings provisions. It amends no day-count. The payment response is still 10 working days, the adjudication decision still 45 working days, and default payment under s 36 still 30 calendar days. Secondary commentary claiming the timelines tightened does not match the amending Act.
Forty-five working days under s 12(2) of Act 746, running from the service of the adjudication response or the expiry of the period to serve it, whichever is earlier. The parties can agree to extend. A decision made out of time without an extension is open to challenge, so the date matters.
No, and this is the detail most spreadsheets get wrong. Section 4 of Act 746 defines a working day by reference to the weekends and gazetted public holidays applicable where the site is located. Johor, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu observe a Friday–Saturday weekend; the rest of Malaysia observes Saturday–Sunday. State holidays differ again. The same trigger date therefore produces different statutory deadlines for a Johor site and a Selangor site.
Under s 36(4) of Act 746 the adjudicated amount is payable within 30 calendar days of receipt of the decision, unless the decision says otherwise. Beyond that the successful party's routes include enforcement as a judgment under s 28, suspension or reduction of work under s 29 after the required 14 calendar days' notice, and a request for direct payment from the principal under s 30.
No. CIPAA prescribes no retention timetable. Retention and its release are governed by your contract — the PWD, PAM, CIDB or bespoke form you signed — so any retention milestone is contract arithmetic on terms you entered, not a statutory period. Treat any tool that presents a retention deadline as statutory with suspicion.
Sources: Construction Industry Payment and Adjudication Act 2012 (Act 746) and the Construction Industry Payment and Adjudication (Amendment) Act 2024 (Act A1738), both read in primary text. This page is general information about the statute, not legal advice on your contract or your dispute.
Moorstack runs each statutory period off the dates you enter, cites the provision it read, and says plainly when a state's holiday table isn't loaded rather than guessing. Thirty minutes with both founders, on your live claims.