Completion, taking over and the dates it sets running

Completion on a Singapore contract is the moment the works are ready to be taken over and used for their intended purpose. Standard forms such as the PSSCOC and SIA conditions mark it with a certificate, and that certificate does a great deal of work. It is not the end of the job. It is the start of a chain of dated obligations.

What the certificate switches

Issuing the completion certificate changes several things at once.

• Taking over, the employer accepts the works and takes possession for use.
• Liquidated damages stop, because the contractor is no longer late once the works are complete.
• The defects period starts, the window in which the contractor makes good defects that appear.
• Retention releases, the first portion of the held sum falls due back to the contractor.

Complete is not perfect

The works can be complete for taking over while minor items remain outstanding. Completion turns on whether the works are ready for their intended use, not on whether every snag has been cleared. Outstanding items are dealt with through the defects mechanism, not by refusing completion. Confusing the two either holds the certificate hostage over trivial snags or hands it over on works that are not usable.

The defects period and the second release

The defects liability period runs from completion. During it, the contractor returns to make good defects that emerge. At the end of it, once outstanding items are resolved, the balance of retention is released. That second release is the one most often forgotten, because it falls long after the site has closed and attention has moved on.

Diary it from the certificate

The moment the completion certificate issues, record the completion date and set the milestones from it: the end of the defects period, the first and second retention releases, and the run into the final account. Each of those is a claimable event, and each falls due on a date that is fixed the day the certificate is signed.

Treat completion as a milestone that generates dates, not as the finish line. The certificate does not close the job. It opens the last, and most easily neglected, part of it.