Disputes: what it costs a construction contractor

What it is. 8.56% of the amount claimed, awarded across 214 decisions.

Sample. AU$81.9m awarded against AU$957.0m claimed across 214 decisions. Queensland only, security-of-payment disputes, all construction sectors.

What it is not. One A$634m claim dominates the total; without it the award rate is at most about 25%. The ratio is the research pass's own calculation, not the QBCC's. Do not use it as a typical loss rate.

Our arithmetic. AU$81.9m awarded / AU$957.0m claimed = 0.0856 (Table 23; the ratio is ours, not the QBCC's)

Where it came from

• Queensland Building and Construction Commission (2025), QBCC Annual Report 2024-2025, Table 23
  Table 23, p.23 · source record

evidence_gap/dispute_recovery_adjudication · AU-QLD · F ·the record ·link to this figure ·dispute this figure(or email support@demiton.io)

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What it is. 14.9% of the amount claimed in adjudication decisions released, pooled over five financial years.

Range 8.56% to 45.6% (reported min max)

Sample. Every decision released by the QBCC Adjudication Registry under the Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017, 2020-21 to 2024-25: 983 decisions. By year: 2020-21 45.6%, 2021-22 30.6%, 2022-23 14.3%, 2023-24 27.3%, 2024-25 8.6%.

What it is not. Pooled dollars, so the largest claims dominate: 2024-25 alone is 65% of the amount claimed, and one A$634m claim sits inside it. The annual rate swings from 8.6% to 45.6%. It counts only disputes that reached a released decision, not every payment claim.

Our arithmetic. Awarded / claimed on decisions released, by year: 2020-21 $37,503,111 / $82,254,751 = 0.456; 2021-22 $15,854,534 / $51,816,751 = 0.306; 2022-23 $21,858,656 / $152,408,699 = 0.143; 2023-24 $61,524,294 / $225,306,009 = 0.273; 2024-25 $81,873,482 / $956,966,294 = 0.086. Pooled over five years: $218,614,077 / $1,468,752,504 = 0.1488.

Where it came from

• Queensland Building and Construction Commission (2021), QBCC Annual Report 2020-21
  Table 6, decisions released · source record
• Queensland Building and Construction Commission (2022), QBCC Annual Report 2021-22
  Table 6, decisions released · source record
• Queensland Building and Construction Commission (2023), QBCC Annual Report 2022-23
  Table 6, decisions released · source record
• Queensland Building and Construction Commission (2024), QBCC Annual Report 2023-24
  Table 6, decisions released · source record
• Queensland Building and Construction Commission (2025), QBCC Annual Report 2024-2025, Table 23
  Table 23, p.23 · source record

evidence_gap/dispute_recovery_adjudication_qld_series · AU-QLD · F ·the record ·link to this figure ·dispute this figure(or email support@demiton.io)

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What it is. 12% of the amount claimed in all adjudication applications, including those that never reached a determination; NSW figure, with QLD and VIC as the range.

Range 12% to 35% (reported min max)

Sample. State regulators' adjudication statistics, NSW, QLD and VIC, 2018-2023: 9,784 applications, 5,657 determinations. NSW is 12%, QLD 18%, VIC 35%.

What it is not. The denominator includes the roughly 40% of applications that never reached a determination (withdrawn, settled or paid), so this understates what claimants recover on decided disputes: NSW 2011-12 on decided disputes only was 50.9%. A consultancy's analysis, with internal inconsistencies: Victoria's totals differ between the December 2023 and February 2024 editions, and the NSW prose total ($5.5bn) disagrees with its own table ($6.28bn).

Where it came from

• Liu (DGA Australia) (2023), Review of Adjudication Outcomes Across Australian States (NSW, Vic and Qld): Are the regimes effective?
  Table A, p.25; definition of the Success Ratio, p.26 · source record

evidence_gap/dispute_recovery_adjudication_success_ratio · AU-NSW, AU-QLD, AU-VIC · F ·the record ·link to this figure ·dispute this figure(or email support@demiton.io)

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What it is. Australian dollars lost per subcontractor reporting non-payment, excluding submissions about multiple creditors.

Sample. 146 submissions to a Queensland Government taskforce in 2019, mostly from South Queensland and from small contractors (90% under $12m revenue). Losses ranged from $1,500 to $6 million per individual.

What it is not. Self-reported and self-selected: the subcontractors who wrote in, not a sample of all subcontractors, and their own statement of what they were owed. The $112m multi-creditor submission is excluded from the average. Per case, not a share of contract value, so it is never multiplied by one.

Where it came from

• Special Joint Taskforce (Byrne; Queensland Police Service, QBCC and ODPP) (2019), Special Joint Taskforce: Investigating subcontractor non-payment in the Queensland building and construction industry
  Section 1.4.3 'Nature of submissions', p.16 · source record

evidence_gap/dispute_subcontractor_nonpayment_qld · AU-QLD · F ·the record ·link to this figure ·dispute this figure(or email support@demiton.io)

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What it is. 50.9% of the amount claimed, across the 779 applications whose determination was released.

Sample. All 1,112 NSW adjudication applications in 2011-12, of which 779 reached a released determination. Claims under $100,000 (74% of determinations) were awarded about 84% of the amount claimed.

What it is not. One financial year, fourteen years old. It covers only disputes that reached a decision: the 333 applications withdrawn, settled or dismissed are outside it, so it is the recovery rate once adjudicated, not on every claim. Larger claims recovered a smaller share. Not comparable with the Queensland 2024-25 figure or the 2018-2023 success ratios, which divide by different populations.

Our arithmetic. $77,903,361 adjudicated / $153,143,608 claimed = 0.509 (Fig. 4, p.4). The report states the same result as 'about half of the aggregate amount claimed'.

Where it came from

• NSW Department of Finance & Services (statistics by the UNSW Adjudication Research + Reporting Unit) (2012), Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 - Adjudication Activity in New South Wales, Annual Report 2011/12
  Fig. 4 'Total claimed and adjudicated amounts 2011/12', p.4; Table 1, p.4; Table A, p.6 · source record

evidence_gap/dispute_recovery_adjudication_nsw_2011 · AU-NSW · F ·the record ·link to this figure ·dispute this figure(or email support@demiton.io)

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What it is. 19.2% of the amount claimed: the claimant's own costs of taking a payment dispute to adjudication, averaged over all claims.

Sample. All statutory adjudications administered by the Building Disputes Tribunal, 2003-2023 (43 to 152 cases a year). Respondents' costs average 17.64% and the adjudicator's fee 16.37% of the claim.

What it is not. One tribunal's own caseload, not every New Zealand adjudication. An average of per-claim percentages, so small claims dominate: under $30,000 the claimant's costs are 21.6%, over $10 million 1.74%. The claimant is usually, not always, the contractor or subcontractor seeking payment.

Where it came from

• Building Disputes Tribunal (Te Taraipiunara Tautohe Hanga Whare) (2023), Tracking the Trends: A report on statutory adjudication in Aotearoa New Zealand 2003-2023
  'Costs - How much does it cost?', 'Average costs all claims' table, pp.31-32 · source record

evidence_gap/dispute_adjudication_party_costs_nz · NZ · F ·the record ·link to this figure ·dispute this figure(or email support@demiton.io)

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What it is. 83% of total arbitration costs, being each party's own lawyers, experts and witnesses.

Sample. 221 ICC awards from 2012, all sectors - not construction-specific.

What it is not. The share is of arbitration cost, not of contract value, which is why the unit is a ratio but the basis is explicitly the arbitration bill. Litigation to recovery is not linear: fighting is expensive in people's time.

Where it came from

• ICC Commission (2015), Decisions on Costs in International Arbitration
  p.5, para 2 · source record

evidence_gap/dispute_party_costs_share · GLOBAL · ALL ·the record ·link to this figure ·dispute this figure(or email support@demiton.io)

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What it is. 33.4% of contract budget.

Sample. 2,200+ projects in 114 countries, US$2.433tn of capex, average US$1.25bn. Time extensions sought averaged 65.8% of planned schedules.

What it is not. CEILING, NOT TYPICAL CASE. These are HKA's own engagements - mostly disputed megaprojects that reached expert investigation. Read it as the top of the range for a job already in trouble, not the exposure on an ordinary civil contract.

Where it came from

• HKA (2025), From Insight to Foresight
  report summary (full report requires a sign-up) · source record

evidence_gap/dispute_sums_at_stake · GLOBAL · F ·the record ·link to this figure ·dispute this figure(or email support@demiton.io)

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What it is. US dollars per dispute: the claimed value of the additional work or event as asserted by the contractor.

Sample. Arcadis North America survey, 2024 data year, published June 2025. Average dispute length 12.5 months. The number of respondents is not stated.

What it is not. A consultancy's view of the disputes it sees, in North America only, and the value claimed by the contractor, not the amount won. A mean dragged up by a few very large disputes: 80% of claims are US$25 million or less and almost half under US$5 million. Not a share of contract value, so it is never multiplied by one.

Where it came from

• Arcadis (2025), Construction Disputes in Motion: Speed, Agility, and Adapting to Change (15th Annual Construction Disputes Report, North America)
  'Overall Findings', PDF p.5-6 (average dispute value and length charts); definition, p.2 sidebar; methodology, p.23 · source record

evidence_gap/dispute_value_north_america · CA, US · F ·the record ·link to this figure ·dispute this figure(or email support@demiton.io)

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