Completion
Sectional retention
Section A · PC 3 Mar 26£400,000
Section B · PC 9 Sep 26£600,000
Retention held on all works£50,000
Released at section PCs(£25,000)
Held after both sections£25,000
Completion
Practical completion is not a tidy site. It is a certificate, and on the date it carries, five separate things change at once. A program that prints the certificate and leaves the figures alone has done the easy half.
30 days free, no card.
Half the retention attributable to each section is released at that section’s own practical completion, not at the end of the contract.
Where the contract divides the works into sections, each has its own completion date, its own damages rate and its own retention release.
A section handed over in March should not be waiting on a contract that finishes in November, and in most systems it is. Partial possession works the same way. Give the part a value and QScope releases retention against it as if it had reached practical completion, and reduces the damages rate in the same proportion, from the date of possession rather than retrospectively.
Completion
Enter the date on the certificate and the retention halves from that valuation, the rectification period starts, and liability for liquidated damages ends.
Half the retention held was released on the certified date. The balance follows the certificate of making good.
Completion
The calculation takes a minute.
No certificate of non-completion is on the register. Under a JCT form the deduction cannot be made until it is issued and the employer has given notice.
Retention
The moment practical completion is certified the held retention halves, and QScope carries the new figure straight onto the retention notice the client receives.
Half the retention was released on the certified date. The balance follows the certificate of making good.
Defects
The certificate of making good releases the balance of the retention, and it depends on the schedule of defects being clear.
Four items remain outstanding, so making good cannot be certified and the final £12,500 of retention stays held.
Completion
On a FIDIC contract the same five clocks run, under different names.
On the Taking-Over date the first half of the retention is released and the Defects Notification Period begins, counted in calendar days. The Performance Certificate at its end releases the balance. The figures are a starting point to verify for the jurisdiction.
Who it is for
You are applying
You claim the time before damages runYou notice delay, name the relevant event and claim the time before the damages clock does the arguing for you.
Applying for paymentYou are certifying
You award the weeks and stop the clockYou assess the extension from the other chair, and the completion certificate you issue halves retention and stops the damages clock.
Certifying paymentYou are doing both
Your delay is your own money waitingYou run the programme and the money together, and a completion date that slips moves the whole payment tail with it.
Doing both yourselfYou are reporting
A late job is a loan running longYou track completion against the facility term, because a job that finishes late is a loan that runs longer than the model.
Recommending a drawdownThe client, the architect and the tenderer are not on this list. They are the people you let in on a link: they see the one document you sent them, answer it, and that answer is written into the record. No account, no licence, no charge, on every plan.
The questions this page raises most often, answered without a sales pitch at the end.
No. If a certificate is on the register, that date governs, because the certificate is the document the contractor received. If both are filled in and they disagree, QScope tells you and applies the certificate.
Give each section a value that reconciles to the contract sum. QScope warns you when the values do not add up, because retention is released against them and an unreconciled split releases the wrong amount.
The contract does not really allow it, because the consequences cannot be made conditional. Record outstanding work as a separate schedule and issue an unqualified certificate.
Yes. Damages run to the date of practical completion and no further, and the calculation uses the certified date.
Yes. Choose the FIDIC form and QScope treats the Taking-Over Certificate as completion: the retention halves, the Defects Notification Period starts and delay damages stop on its date. The Performance Certificate at the end of that period releases the balance.
They run to the Taking-Over date rather than to practical completion, and FIDIC has no certificate of non-completion or pay-less notice. Counting is in calendar days. The statutory figures shown for each jurisdiction are published starting points to verify locally.
From the blog
Three pieces from the same corner of a contract as this page, answered at length and without a sales pitch at the end.
A defect is work that does not match the contract, and half the items on an angry snag list fail that test: they match the contract and not the client’s imagination. How to sort a defects schedule into its four real categories, and answer it without a war.
Read nowThe dividing line is simpler than the clause lists make it look: delay from the client’s side of the fence gives time, delay from yours does not, and neutral events give whatever the contract chose to give. Where weather really sits.
Read nowAlmost certainly yes: the defects period ending did not end your responsibility, it ended a retention mechanism. How long liability really runs, six years on a signed contract, twelve on a deed, and how to respond to the call.
Read nowKeep reading
Practical completion is not a tidy site. It is a certificate, and on the date it carries, five separate things change at once. A program that prints the certificate and leaves the figures alone has done the easy half.
30 days free, no card.
Rather ask first? Write to help@qscope.co.uk and you will get a reply within one working day, Monday to Friday.