The end of building work is a sequence of decisions and records, rather than one final visit. Practical completion, occupation, making good defects, agreeing the final account and issuing a final certificate should be tracked separately. Their relationship depends on the selected JCT form, edition and amendments. This guide helps a client plan the handover conversation and organise supporting information. It does not decide whether an individual project is complete or replace advice on disputed defects, possession or a certificate's legal effect.
Identify the actual completion requirements
Begin with the executed contract and the documents defining the work. Ask the administrator to identify the applicable completion provisions, any defined sections and project-specific requirements. JCT's publisher commentary explains that practical-completion arrangements differ between contract families. Its 2019 commentary is useful context, but it is not a substitute for reading the edition and amendments used on the current project.
Prepare a completion-information schedule early enough for the contractor and designers to respond. For each required item, record the document, provider, recipient and planned delivery date. Ask which items are contractual prerequisites, which support an assessment and which are operational handover preferences. Do not turn an informal wish list into an asserted contractual condition without checking the agreed documents.
Do not equate occupation with practical completion
In Mears v Costplan, the Court of Appeal explained that known defects beyond the trifling can prevent practical completion, and that being capable of occupation does not alone establish completion. Whether an item is trifling is a matter of fact and degree, considered in context. The judgment also recognises that parties can agree particular parameters for the certifier. Those principles require assessment rather than a universal snag-count rule.
If you need to move in, occupy part of the works or reopen premises before the planned handover, raise that requirement with the team in advance. Ask them to explain the proposed contractual route and its implications before access arrangements are changed. Record the area, timing and responsibilities under consideration. A moving date should not be used as the sole evidence that the completion criteria have been met.
Make the inspection record specific
Before the assessment visit, gather the current drawings, instructions, test results and the contractor's outstanding-work record. At the visit, identify observations by location and describe the departure from the requirement as clearly as possible. Distinguish something not yet finished from work said to be defective, and identify any information needed before an observation can be resolved. Photographs should have enough context to locate the item later.
Ask the responsible certifier to record the decision under the contract separately from the working inspection list. Do not treat the existence of a list as automatic permission to certify, or the existence of one minor observation as automatic refusal. If specialist evidence is needed, identify who will provide it and how it reaches the decision-maker. Keep unresolved questions visible rather than deleting them when a revised list is circulated.
Plan the handover information and operation
Use the project requirements to assemble the handover pack: for example, the applicable drawings, commissioning information, operating instructions, warranties and records requested by the client team. Verify the list against the actual scope rather than assuming every project needs the same bundle. Agree a usable filing structure and name the person who will receive and maintain it once the contractor's main site presence ends.
Arrange any agreed demonstrations with the people who will operate the building. Record questions and missing information, and assign follow-up actions. Keep contractual completion evidence separate from the client's operational checklist, while showing where the same document serves both. Ask the appropriate adviser about any separate regulatory approvals or occupation restrictions; a contractual completion certificate should not be treated as a substitute for them.
Check the consequences before issuing or relying on a certificate
JCT's commentary highlights that completion certification and partial-possession records can trigger other contractual provisions. Ask the team to explain the consequences under your own documents, including the relevant dates and any effects on retention, insurance arrangements or subsequent defect procedures. Record the advice before assuming that every JCT form has the same trigger or that a certificate authorises every planned action.
Make sure the client, administrator and relevant advisers are working from the same issued version. Keep an issue register rather than relying on an unsigned attachment forwarded between people. If someone contests the decision, preserve the reasons and supporting evidence and obtain advice on the correct contractual route. Do not alter an issued certificate informally to resolve a disagreement about its date or scope.
Organise defect follow-up after handover
JCT's Minor Works 2024 administration pack distinguishes the practical completion certificate from the certificate of making good. For your project, confirm the applicable defect procedure, period and responsible person from the contract. Do not assume a standard period from a previous job or treat the passing of a calendar date as proof that notified work has been completed.
Keep a dated defect register with the location, description, photographs, notification record and response. Separate newly reported problems from previously listed outstanding work, without prejudging liability. Arrange access and record what was done, then ask who must inspect or confirm closure. Urgent safety concerns need prompt appropriate action; do not store them in a routine end-of-period list while waiting for an ordinary review meeting.
Reconcile the final account with the project record
Build the close-out cost record from the agreed pricing documents, instructions, assessed changes, supporting submissions and payments. Keep amounts agreed, disputed and awaiting evidence distinguishable. Ask the appointed team who prepares the account, who assesses it and how the relevant contract steps are completed. Our quantity surveying and cost consultancy scope describes separately commissioned final-account support. Do not infer that the account has been agreed merely because the client has taken possession or the contractor has left site.
Cross-check each remaining item against its instruction and assessment history. Record the basis of any adjustment and retain the documents explaining it. Then have the adviser check the relationship between account agreement, any final certificate and the payment procedure. Our payment-documents guide explains why a financial assessment and a notice should not be treated as interchangeable records.
Define when the professional appointment finishes
Confirm which adviser remains appointed for defect follow-up, final information and the final account, including the arrangements for any additional services. Ask for a close-out index showing issued certificates, outstanding actions, unresolved questions and the owner of each remaining task. Preserve the contract and correspondence with that index so that a new manager or owner can understand the record without reconstructing it from individual inboxes.
Read how to compare a CA appointment and fee when checking those later duties. HCS's contract administration scope remains subject to a separate agreed professional appointment. HCS cannot act as independent contract administrator where HCS is the contractor. A clear endpoint for the appointment helps the client identify who will answer any question that remains after the main works are handed over.