Practical completion, and everything it triggers

Practical completion is the most consequential single date on a construction contract. It is not a status update. It releases money, starts a period, stops a liability and begins a countdown. QScope records it once and lets every consequence flow from that one entry, rather than leaving each to be actioned separately and forgotten separately.

What the date sets in motion

• Retention. The first moiety is released, the balance held to the end of the rectification period.
• The rectification period. It starts here, and with it the clock to the second retention release.
• Liquidated damages. The contractor's liability for delay damages stops at practical completion.
• The final account. The run to closing the account, and on JCT to the Final Certificate, begins.

JCT certificates and NEC4 Completion

Under JCT the contract administrator issues a certificate of practical completion, and the retention release and rectification period run from it. Under NEC4 the Project Manager certifies Completion against the defined Completion criteria, and the defects date and defects correction period follow. The mechanisms differ in name and detail, and QScope records the milestone in the form the contract uses while driving the same downstream consequences.

Sectional and partial completion

Where a contract completes in sections, or where the employer takes partial possession, practical completion is not one date but several, each releasing retention on its part and starting its own rectification period. QScope holds each section separately, so the retention released on the completed block and the retention still held on the rest are both correct, rather than the whole job being treated as complete or incomplete.

Linked, not filed

The value in recording practical completion inside QScope is that it is linked to the retention tracker, the final account and the payment position, not filed as a certificate in a folder. The moment PC is recorded, the retention release is scheduled, the rectification clock is running, and the final account run has begun. One date, entered once, doing all the work it is supposed to do.