The Taking-Over Certificate and everything it triggers
Taking-Over is the moment the Works pass to the Employer. On a FIDIC job it is one certificate under Clause 10, and it sets off a chain: the first half of retention, the Defects Notification Period, and the end of delay damages.
QScope Team · 25 February 2026 · 5 min read
On a FIDIC Red or Yellow Book contract, Taking-Over is the milestone that matters most after the money. It is the point the Works are complete enough for the Employer to take them, and on a phased Vision 2030 development it can happen section by section over many months. The Taking-Over Certificate under Clause 10 is the document that records it, and it triggers several other clauses at once.
What Taking-Over means
Under Sub-Clause 10.1, the Engineer issues the Taking-Over Certificate when the Works, or a Section, are substantially complete and have passed any required tests, minor outstanding items aside. It is not perfection. Snagging and minor works can remain, to be finished in the Defects Notification Period. The test is whether the Employer can take over and use the Works for their intended purpose.
What it triggers
- The first half of retention. Under Sub-Clause 14.9, half the retention is certified for release when the Taking-Over Certificate is issued.
- The Defects Notification Period. The maintenance period starts running from the Taking-Over date, and its length is set in the Contract Data.
- The end of delay damages. Delay damages stop accruing at Taking-Over, because the Works are complete for the purposes of the completion date.
- The passing of risk. Responsibility for care of the Works largely passes to the Employer.
Sections complete at different times
On a giga-project handed over in Sections, each Section gets its own Taking-Over Certificate, and each triggers its own share of these consequences. Retention releases proportionately, the Defects Notification Period runs separately for each Section, and delay damages for a late Section stop at that Section handover. Tracking these dates Section by Section is essential, because a single project date does not exist when the job completes in pieces.
The discipline
When a Taking-Over Certificate is issued, diary everything it sets off at once: the first retention release under Sub-Clause 14.9, the Defects Notification Period expiry which drives the second release, and the end of delay damages for that Section. On a long, phased job these dates are easy to lose because they arrive one Section at a time, months apart, and the certificate that started each clock is the only anchor for all of them.
QScope links the Taking-Over date to the retention release and the Defects Notification Period, so the events it triggers are diarised the moment the certificate is issued.