Practical completion: the Superintendent decides
Practical completion is a certificate, not a feeling on site. Under AS 4000 the Superintendent issues it, and the moment it lands a run of commercial clocks starts or stops.
QScope Team · 26 May 2026 · 5 min read
Under AS 4000 practical completion is the point where the works are complete except for minor defects and minor omissions that do not prevent the works being used for their intended purpose. It is not the day the last trade leaves. It is the day the Superintendent certifies, and that certificate is the trigger for a set of commercial consequences.
The Superintendent certifies
The contractor claims practical completion, and the Superintendent assesses whether the standard is met. The role is a contractual one: the Superintendent acts under AS 4000 and must reach an honest view, not simply take the principal's side. A certificate issued, or reasonably withheld, sets the date everything else counts from.
What the date sets running
- Retention release. The first tranche of retention falls due at practical completion.
- The defects liability period. The clock for making good notified defects starts here.
- Liquidated damages. The principal's right to damages for late completion stops at practical completion.
- Risk and insurance. Care of the works and related obligations shift as the contract provides.
Minor defects do not bar it
Practical completion tolerates minor defects and omissions. A short punch list of items that can be finished during the defects period does not, on its own, hold the certificate back. What holds it back is work that stops the building being used for its purpose. Confusing the two, and chasing a snag-free handover before certifying, delays retention release and keeps the damages clock running for no good reason.
It feeds the final account
Practical completion opens the closing stage of the job. The first retention tranche is claimed, the defects period runs, and once defects are made good the second tranche falls due and the final account can be settled. Because each of those is a payment event, they run as payment claims under the Security of Payment Act on the state business-day clock like every claim before them.
Record the date and work backwards
Everything downstream is counted from the practical completion date, so fix it precisely and let the dependent deadlines flow from it: the retention release, the defects period end, the second retention tranche. A certificate with a firm date is a set of deadlines you can manage. A vague handover is a set of deadlines you will miss.
QScope hangs retention release, the defects period and the damages position off the practical completion date, so the certificate feeds every dependent deadline at once.