How do you close out a project with open defects?
Minor items that don’t prevent safe use can be carried into the defects liability period by agreement, typically with money withheld against them — some contracts provide for the employer to withhold up to 150% of the estimated value of open items. Material defects — structural, fire, waterproofing — normally block the taking-over certificate outright. What decides the outcome is a register that can prove which items are open, who owns them, and what evidence of closure exists.
What can be carried, and what cannot
De-minimis items — the chipped tile, the misaligned door, the unpainted reveal — are carried into the defects period by agreement, with money attached to each. That is the normal, healthy path.
Material defects are different. Structural, fire and waterproofing failures normally block the certificate, because the certificate is what transfers care of the works and insurance risk to the employer. You cannot hand over a building the employer cannot safely occupy.
The trap on the other side
Pressure to occupy can force a certificate with a long “minor items” annex. It feels like progress and it usually isn’t: occupied units make access for de-snagging miserable, closure velocity collapses, and the second half of retention sits hostage a year later.
The failure is a records problem as much as a work problem. A paper list that cannot say which items are open, who owns them, or what proof of closure exists is not a basis for releasing anyone’s money.
In the guides
Terms
References
- module: /modules/snag-list/ — taking-over certificates, de-minimis items, retention withholding
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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