BIF Act (Qld Building Industry Fairness)
BIF Act is the common acronym for Queensland's Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017. Covers payment claims, adjudication and project trusts.
Ask Chalkline about this →BIF Act is the universal industry acronym for the Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017 (Qld), Queensland’s combined security-of-payment-and-construction-trust statute. It replaced the prior Building and Construction Industry Payments Act 2004 (BCIPA) at commencement on 17 December 2018 (verified 2026-05-16).
The Act does two main things that distinguish it from East Coast SOP siblings:
- Payment-and-adjudication side: like NSW’s SOP Act 1999 and Vic’s SOP Act 2002, the BIF Act gives contractors and subcontractors a statutory right to lodge payment claims (s.68), receive payment schedules (s.69 within 15 business days), and apply for adjudication if the schedule is short or missing (s.79).
- Project trust and retention trust regime (Chapter 2): on contracts at or above the threshold (currently $10m private / $1m government), the head contractor must establish a statutory trust account at an authorised deposit-taking institution and pay subcontractors through it. The lower thresholds ($3m, then $1m) were scheduled to commence in 2025 but the expansion was paused 31 January 2025.
For the practical detail of how a builder uses the BIF Act, see the Qld SOP practical guide. For the regulation-level treatment with the full Act structure and recent reforms, see BIF Act 2017 (Qld).
Also known as: Building Industry Fairness Act; Qld BIF; Qld SOP Act (loose, since BIF replaced and consolidated the old BCIPA).
Category: Contracts & commercial.
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Last updated: 2026-05-16. Verified: 2026-05-16. Quarterly review for currency.