The progress claim was certified and the money has not arrived
When a certified progress claim goes unpaid, the problem is timing rather than entitlement — the work is done and the money is owed. HomeSec funds the gap against equity in real property, from $20,000 to $5,000,000, generally settling within 24 hours, with the claim itself as the exit. Every state and territory also has security of payment legislation that moves far faster than a court, and it should be running in parallel.
See if you qualify in sixty seconds. No credit check to apply, no financials, no payments for the first six months. That's the HomeSec Advantage.
See if you qualifyStart the statutory process, today
Every Australian state and territory has security of payment legislation, and it exists precisely for this. It gives people who have done construction work a statutory route to payment that runs in weeks rather than the months a court would take. It is the first thing to do, and for many claims it is the only thing needed.
We are deliberately not going to tell you what your deadline is, and you should distrust any lender who does. Every jurisdiction has its own Act, its own time limits, its own definition of a valid payment claim, and its own exclusions — the Northern Territory runs a different model altogether, and Victoria's rules changed materially in April 2026. Your contract can also set a shorter period than the Act's default. Get the dates for your state and your contract from a construction solicitor or your state building authority. Do it today, because the periods are counted in business days.
- Silence from the other side is not an automatic win. It is widely repeated that a respondent who fails to serve a payment schedule in time simply loses. In New South Wales there is a further step: the claimant has to give notice of an intention to adjudicate, and the respondent then gets another short window to serve a schedule. Miss the notice and you can lose the advantage you thought you already had. This is exactly the kind of detail a solicitor earns their fee on.
- Missing a step usually does not destroy the debt. It forfeits the statutory fast-track for that claim. The contractual debt survives, unpaid amounts can generally go into a later claim, and your ordinary court rights remain. Bad, not fatal — which matters, because panic at this point is what leads to bad borrowing.
Adjudication carries an application fee and the adjudicator's fee, and the claimant is commonly asked to fund them up front. Legal costs are generally not recoverable even when you win. It is still far cheaper and far quicker than litigation, and it is still the right first move — but budget for it rather than being surprised by it, and factor it in when you work out how much you actually need to borrow.
Why people borrow anyway
Because "faster than a court" is still not fast enough for a payroll run. Adjudication measured in weeks is genuinely quick by legal standards and completely useless against a wages bill due Thursday, a supplier who has moved you to stop-credit, or the next project you cannot start without materials. And a determination is not the same thing as money in the account — it still has to be enforced, and it can be challenged.
So the two run in parallel, and that is the right shape: pursue the claim through the statutory process because it is cheap and it works, and fund the gap in the meantime so the business is still trading when the money lands.
The exit here is unusually clean
A certified claim is close to the strongest exit we see. The work is done, the entitlement is documented, and there is a statutory process behind it. That is a dated, identifiable event rather than a forecast, which is the part of any file that carries the most weight with us.
What we will ask about: the certification, the head contractor, whether a payment schedule was served and what it said, whether the statutory process is running, and whether the claim is genuinely certified or genuinely disputed. Not because a dispute disqualifies you — but because a disputed claim is a different exit on a different timeline, and we would rather know that on the first call than at month three.
Whether a variation is payable, whether retention was properly held, whether the certification stands — none of that is a lender's judgement to make, and any lender who tells you it is should worry you. We lend against property equity and the credibility of the exit. Your solicitor argues the contract.
Why this is usually a caveat
The security is equity in real property you already own — a home, an investment property, commercial premises or land. A caveat can be lodged and settled without the first mortgagee's consent, which is what makes a same-week answer possible, and it does not touch your existing loan.
We do not require financial statements, tax returns, BAS, cash flow records or a sworn valuation. Construction files routinely arrive with none of those current, and it is not a reason to decline. To 80% of value on residential security, 70% on commercial, from $20,000 to $5,000,000.
Every application is read by a Lending Manager and every credit decision is signed off by a person. We do not use artificial intelligence to assess, approve, decline or price a loan. A bank feed that dips when a claim goes unpaid is exactly the pattern an automated system reads as danger and a person reads as a fortnight in construction.
One late claim on an otherwise sound job is a cash-flow problem and this is the right product for it. A pattern of claims that never get paid, on a contract that is losing money, is not a cash-flow problem — and borrowing against the family home to keep it going makes the eventual outcome worse. We would rather say that in the first ten minutes than write the file.
How much you can borrow
Take the property's value, multiply by 80% for residential security or 70% for commercial, and subtract what is already owing on it. What is left is roughly what is available, between $20,000 and $5,000,000. Several properties can be added together, and the borrower does not have to be the owner — companies, trusts and sole traders — including start-ups, with everyone on title signing. Up to 80% on residential and 70% on commercial. Lower on large acreage, and LVRs may reduce on properties worth less than $800,000.
From the call to the money
Tell us the deal
Amount, purpose, timing, the property and how the loan gets repaid. A Lending Manager gives you an indicative answer on that call — usually in minutes.
Minutes
Conditional approval
Photo ID, a rates notice and your most recent mortgage statement. That is the whole list, and it takes about fifteen minutes.
About 15 minutes
Funds released
As little as 24 hours from a clean, complete scenario. Paid where you tell us — to your account, or straight to the ATO.
As little as 24 hours
What it costs
Priced per file, on the property, the position, the amount and the exit. No rate is published, because a rate with "from" in front of it is the best file's number. How it is priced, and every fee that exists.
Questions we get on the phone
Can I get funding against an unpaid progress claim?
Should I use security of payment instead?
The claim is disputed rather than certified. Does that stop you?
What if I am behind on super or PAYG as well?
How long can I hold the loan?
How much can I borrow while I wait for the claim to be paid?
Do I need financials or a valuation?
What happens if the claim takes longer to be paid than expected?
Timing risk concentrates in construction, but it is not confined to it.
Have the claim, the certification and the date it was due. 1300 93 83 87, Mon–Fri, 8:30am – 5:30pm Melbourne time.
See if you qualify in sixty seconds
Three short questions, no credit check to apply and no financial statements. A Lending Manager reads it and calls you back with a real answer — not a call centre, not an algorithm.
That's the HomeSec Advantage.
Reviewed by Matt Hempel, National Credit Manager