Progress payments in the Northern Territory
Here, a seven-step standard schedule is published, and the first and last steps are the ones that bind. What a progress payment is, and how the stages of a build line up, is on the main guide.
the Northern Territory sets maximum percentages for each stage. Only 2 of the eight Australian jurisdictions do. The figures below are the law here, not a guide to it.
the Northern Territory: what the law sets
- Deposit
- No more than 5% before commencement
- Base stage
- No more than 10%
- Frame stage
- No more than 20%
- Enclosed stage
- No more than 25%
- Fixing stage
- No more than 30%
- Practical completion
- No more than 7%
- Final completion
- At least 3%, after occupancy certification
Read from NT Government, Signing a residential building contract on 26 October 2026. NT Government (Building Act) is the authority on what applies to a particular contract, and a figure here is a ceiling rather than an entitlement.
The most detailed schedule in the country
The Northern Territory publishes a standard schedule of progress payments covering seven points from deposit to final completion, and a residential building contract for prescribed work must specify either that standard schedule or an alternative agreed in writing on the approved form.
The final payment is a floor, not a ceiling
Every other figure in the schedule is a maximum. Final completion is the exception: it is at least 3% of the total contracted price, payable after occupancy certification or, in a Tier 2 area, a builder's declaration.
That asymmetry is the useful part. A schedule that front-loads the build leaves too little at the end to matter, and the one moment you have real leverage over a defect list is the moment before the last payment. The Territory sets a minimum on that payment so the leverage cannot be contracted away.
An alternative schedule is allowed, in writing
You and the builder can agree a different schedule, documented as a formal progress payment agreement on the appropriate form. Worth considering carefully before you agree to one: the standard schedule is the baseline you are giving up.
Questions about paying a builder in the Northern Territory
Does the standard schedule have to be used?
No. The contract must specify either the standard schedule or an alternative agreed between you and the builder and documented as a formal agreement on the approved forms.
Why is the final payment expressed as a minimum?
Because its job is to leave something unpaid until the work is certified complete. Every other figure in the schedule caps what can be claimed; the final one sets a floor under what must remain.
What is a Tier 2 area?
An area where a builder's declaration stands in place of occupancy certification for the purposes of the final payment. The NT Government page on residential building contracts is the authority on which areas those are.