Before they can charge you for being late, what has to happen first?

Nothing here says late completion has no consequences: if you are late without excuse, the damages page explains what you are exposed to. This page is about a narrower thing: the order in which the client must do it, and what happens when they skip ahead.

The sequence, where your form has one

Step one: the fact of lateness gets certified. Several standard forms require the certifier to issue a certificate, often called a non-completion certificate, formally recording that the works were not complete by the completion date. It sounds bureaucratic; it is load-bearing. It fixes the date lateness is measured from, and on those forms, no certificate means no valid deduction, however late the job actually is. It also resets: if an extension of time is later granted, the old certificate falls and a fresh one is needed against the new date, a detail that quietly kills deductions after every late-awarded extension.

Step two: the client says they intend to deduct. Many forms add a written notice from the client, distinct from the certifier’s certificate, before damages can come off. Different author, different document; the file needs both where both are required.

Step three: the deduction itself gets its payment paperwork. On any job the Construction Act covers, damages come out of a payment only by paying less than the notified sum, which requires a pay less notice, served in time, stating the sum and the basis (section 111). This step exists whatever your form says about the first two, and it is where most defective deductions actually die, because the timing window is short and unforgiving.

What winning on sequence does and does not get you

A deduction that failed its sequence must be repaid or credited this cycle, the shortfall is simply a late payment until it is. It does not decide the delay argument: the client can usually issue the missing paperwork and deduct properly next time, so use the bought time to do the thing that defeats damages on the merits, claiming the extensions you are entitled to.

On a job for someone living in the house

Steps one and two live in your contract, so on a domestic job they exist exactly as far as your form wrote them in; a bare quote has no certificate machinery at all, and then lateness charges rest on general contract law and whatever the quote said about time. Step three does not exist for a residential occupier (section 106), no notified sum, no pay less regime, so a homeowner’s deduction is tested only against the contract and, in consumer terms, the fairness rules. The forum, if it hardens, is the county court via a letter before action.

What to do this week

1. If damages have been deducted, audit the sequence against your form: certificate, notice, pay less, each present, each in time. Reply on the gaps, factually.

2. If the job is heading late, expect the sequence to start, and get your extension claims in before the certificate lands, not after.

3. File every certificate and notice the day it arrives, dated. This entire page is only useful to a builder whose file can prove what did and did not arrive.

Where the information stops

Whether your edition requires the certificate and the separate notice, and whether the ones issued were valid, are readings of your specific wording; when the deduction is large, have the sequence checked professionally before you rely on a gap in it, because a wrongly-claimed invalidity reads badly in every later forum.