Bonds and warranties

Security that expires quietly

A performance bond that lapsed before practical completion, and a collateral warranty nobody ever executed, are both discovered at exactly the same moment: the one you needed them.

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Everything tracked on the date it runs out

Bonds and policies have end dates, and those end dates are set at a point when the programme looked different. When the job runs long, the security runs out before the obligation it secures has been discharged.

QScope flags anything inside sixty days, because extensions take time to arrange and the last week is not enough. Anything already expired is shown in red against the record.

  • Performance, advance payment, off-site materials and retention bonds
  • Parent company guarantees and collateral warranties
  • Contractors all risks, public liability, employers liability and professional indemnity
  • Sixty-day warning before expiry, red once expired
Bonds and warranties
Register
Records
11
Expiring
2
Not in place
3
Performance bond · 10%Expires 14 Sep 26
Parent company guaranteeIn place
Collateral warranty · funderDraft
Advance payment bondExpired 2 Aug 26
The advance payment bond expired while the advance was still being recovered. Until it is reinstated the security for that money no longer exists.

Requested is not the same as in place

The commonest gap is not an expiry at all. It is a bond that was asked for at contract stage, chased twice, and never arrived. Nobody notices because there is no document to file and therefore nothing missing from the file.

QScope counts requested and draft records separately from those in place, so the absence is visible as a number rather than as silence.

  • In place, requested, draft, not required and expired as separate states
  • Amount or limit held against every record
  • Given by, so it is clear whose obligation it is
  • Prints as a register for the project file
Bonds and warranties
Status
In place6
Requested, not received2
In draft1
Not required1
Expired1
Three records are not yet in place. On a project where the security was priced into the deal, that is three obligations nobody can currently enforce.

The bond that secures an advance

An advance payment bond is the security behind money paid before the work is built in. As the advance is recovered the exposure falls, and the bond only needs to cover what is still outstanding.

QScope holds the bond on its expiry date and the advance on its recovery, so the two are read together. A bond that lapses while the advance is still being drawn back leaves that money unsecured, and that is exactly what the register is watching for.

  • Advance payment bond tracked on its expiry date
  • Read against the outstanding advance, not the original sum
  • Sixty-day warning before the bond lapses
  • Red once the money is unsecured
Advance payments
Advance still to recover
Advance paid£45,000.00
Recovered to date(£18,000.00)
Outstanding, still to secure£27,000.00
The advance payment bond expired on 2 Aug 2026 with £27,000 still to recover. Until it is reinstated the security for that money no longer exists.

A retention bond instead of cash

A retention bond lets the contractor substitute security for cash retention, so the money is released and the bond stands in its place. That bond has an expiry date like any other, and it has to outlast the rectification period it covers.

QScope tracks the bond on the register and shows the retention it replaces, so a bond that expires before the retention would have been released is caught before the security disappears.

  • Retention bond tracked in place of cash retention
  • Bond value read against the retention it replaces
  • Expiry checked against the rectification release date
  • Flagged sixty days before it lapses
Retention
Bond in lieu of cash
Cash released
£25,000
Bond value
£25,000
Expiry
14 Sep 27
Cash retention released£25,000.00
Retention bond held in lieu£25,000.00
Rectification release7 Sep 2027
The bond has to outlast the retention it replaces. This one expires a week after the rectification release, which is the margin the register checks.

Where the executed document is filed

The register holds the dates, the amounts and the status. The executed bond, the guarantee and the signed warranty are documents, and they belong in the project file next to the contract they support.

QScope keeps them against the same project as the register, so when the security is called on the wording is to hand rather than somewhere in an email from two years ago.

  • Executed bonds and warranties filed against the project
  • Status on the register linked to the document on file
  • The audit trail records who filed what and when
  • Everything exportable for the project file
Project record
Executed documents
DocumentStatus
Performance bond, executedOn file
Parent company guarantee, signedOn file
Collateral warranty, funderDraft
Advance payment bondExpired
Questions

What surveyors ask before they start

Does QScope store the bond document itself?

Store the executed document in the project files area. The register holds the dates, amounts and status, which is what needs watching.

Why sixty days?

Because a bond extension needs a request, an underwriting decision and an execution, and that rarely happens in a fortnight. Sixty days leaves room for the process to go wrong once.

Should I record subcontractor bonds here too?

Yes. The register is per project and covers security given by anyone on it, with the giving party recorded against each entry.

Does this replace advice from a broker?

No. It is a record of what exists and when it ends. Whether the cover is adequate is a question for whoever arranged it.

Related

The rest of the commercial picture

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