What is the defects liability period?
The DLP starts at the taking-over certificate and typically runs 12 months. During it, the contractor has the RIGHT to return and remedy notified defects at its own cost — a right worth having, because the alternative is the employer engaging others and back-charging, which is almost always more expensive. It closes with the performance certificate, which releases the second half of retention.
It is a right, not only a liability
The framing most teams use — “the DLP is when we get called back” — misses the commercial point. The contractor’s right to return and remedy at its own cost is protection: it is nearly always cheaper than having the employer engage a third party and back-charge the cost.
Losing that right, by failing to respond within the notice window, converts a manageable cost into someone else’s invoice.
What it is bracketed by
It opens at the taking-over certificate — which is also what starts insurance risk transferring to the employer and releases the first half of retention.
It closes at the performance certificate, which releases the second half. Unresolved defects hold both hostage.
What survives it
The end of the DLP is not the end of exposure. Latent defects — those not reasonably discoverable at handover — survive it under general limitation law. And where decennial liability applies, as in the UAE, structural exposure runs for ten years and cannot be contracted away.
Terms
References
- module: /modules/snag-list/ — DLP, retention release, performance certificate
Zepth is the construction project delivery platform — it runs construction, procurement and asset management on one record, and does the work: reading the drawings, reviewing the submittals, matching the invoices and flagging the risks, with a human sign-off on anything consequential.
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