Defects Liability Period (DLP)
The period after taking-over during which the contractor must return and remedy defects that appear — typically twelve months. It is not a warranty period and it does not end the contractor’s liability; it ends one specific obligation.
The distinction that catches people: expiry of the DLP does not extinguish liability for latent defects. It ends the contractor’s right and obligation to come back and fix things under the contract’s defects mechanism. Liability under the general law — and, in the UAE, under decennial liability for structural defects — runs considerably longer.
Which has a records consequence. The photographs, the as-builts and the test records that would answer a defects allegation must survive well beyond the DLP, on a retention schedule set against the limitation period rather than against the project.