Pay-if-paid clause

Definition

A subcontract term making the general contractor's own payment a condition of yours.

Why It Matters

With half this trade's revenue arriving through another contractor's contract, this one clause decides whether a receivable is owed at all or only once somebody upstream is paid. Virginia voids it outright and sets the clock at the earlier of sixty days from invoice or seven days after the general contractor is paid, with written notice of any withholding inside fifty days. That statute expressly does not reach retainage, which is the cleanest proof that the two are separate mechanisms and compound where the clause is enforceable.