QScope

Defects

The schedule of defects and making good

This is not the snagging list from practical completion. It is the contractual schedule the certificate of making good depends on, and with it the last of the retention.

QScope Team·4 min read

Build the schedule

  1. Open Defects and add each item.
  2. Record the location, the trade and what the defect is.
  3. Enter the date it was notified and the date it is to be made good by.
  4. Print the schedule and issue it to the contractor.
The contract usually requires the schedule within a set period after the rectification period ends. Issuing it a year later is not a stronger position, it is a weaker one.

Two dates on every item

Notified and made good. Those two dates are what show the period was operated properly if anyone examines it later, and they are the first thing missing from a schedule kept in a spreadsheet.

  1. Change the status to Made good when the item is done.
  2. Enter the date it was made good.
Disputed is a status, not a gap. If the contractor says an item is not a defect, mark it disputed rather than leaving it outstanding. It still blocks the certificate, which is correct, but the status makes clear the block is a disagreement rather than a delay.

The block on making good

The certificate of making good releases the balance of the retention. Issuing it while items are outstanding hands back the last of the security for work that has not been carried out, and that money does not come back.

  1. Clear the schedule.
  2. Issue the certificate of making good from the Completion tab.
  3. The remaining retention is released in the next valuation.
QScope warns you at the certificate, not in a manual. The schedule and the certificate are two views of the same fact and cannot drift apart.

On a FIDIC contract

QScope offers a FIDIC contract form alongside the UK forms. The schedule works the same way, under different names.

  1. The rectification period is the Defects Notification Period under Clause 11, running from the Taking-Over Certificate.
  2. Build and issue the schedule inside that period as usual.
  3. Issue the Performance Certificate, under Sub-Clause 11.9, to release the second half of the retention.
The certificate of making good maps to the Performance Certificate. QScope blocks it while items remain outstanding, exactly as under a UK form. The period is counted in calendar days, and the statutory figures shown for each jurisdiction are published starting points to verify locally.

Keep reading

Related

Schedule of defects The schedule issued at the end of the rectification period, or the FIDIC Defects Notification Period, with a block on releasing the last of the retention early. Read this next Recording and assessing extensions of time Logging a delay event, naming the relevant event or FIDIC ground, the 28 day notice clock under Sub-Clause 20.1, and why only awarded time moves completion. Read this next Files, plans and site photos Storing project documents, drawings and photographs against the job, and what to keep where. Read this next