Practical completion: what it means and what to check
Practical completion is the point at which a building is finished enough to be used for its intended purpose, even if minor items remain outstanding. It is not perfection, and that gap — between "finished enough" and "finished" — is where most handover arguments live.
It matters far beyond the paperwork. In most contracts, certifying practical completion starts the defects liability period, ends the contractor's liability for liquidated damages, transfers responsibility for insuring and securing the building, and releases part of the retention. Signing it early to keep a programme looking healthy is one of the more expensive habits in construction.
What practical completion is not
- Not a snag-free building. Minor defects are expected. Works that prevent the building being used are not minor, whatever they are called on the day.
- Not the end of the contractor's obligations. They still have to return and put right defects through the liability period.
- Not a substitute for statutory sign-off. Building control, fire certification and any required commissioning are separate, and a building can be physically finished while remaining legally unusable.
- Not automatically the date on the certificate. Disputes about the actual date are common, which is why contemporaneous, dated records matter.
What to check before you sign
Walk the building in a fixed order and record as you go, rather than trying to remember it afterwards. The categories below are where refusals usually originate.
- Access and egress. Every route in, out and through, including fire escapes, door closers, thresholds and level access. A door that binds is minor; a fire door that does not latch is not.
- Services in operation. Heating, hot water, ventilation, power to every circuit, lighting including emergency lighting, drainage running away properly. Not "installed" — operating.
- Commissioning and test certificates. Electrical certification, gas safety, water hygiene, lift and fire alarm commissioning, air tightness. Missing paperwork is an outstanding item even when the plant is running.
- Weather-tightness. Roof, flashings, sealants, thresholds and window perimeters. Staining and salting is evidence of a live problem, not a decorating item.
- Safety-critical fixings. Balustrades, handrails, guarding heights, glazing type in critical locations.
- The O&M manual and as-builts. A building handed over without them costs the client for years.
- Finishes, last. Paint, joinery, tiling, ironmongery. Genuinely the snagging layer, and the part everyone starts with because it is the easiest to see.
The disputes that come up every time
"That's a snag, not a defect." The distinction people argue about is usually the wrong one. The question is whether the item prevents the building being used for its purpose. Record it either way and let the certificate decide.
"It was like that when you took it over." This is settled entirely by dated, photographed records made at handover. Without them it is one memory against another, and the party without evidence loses.
"We agreed that on site." Verbal agreements at practical completion have a way of evaporating. If a decision changes what is being accepted, it belongs in writing the same day.
Record it so it survives the argument
The handover record is the one document from the whole project most likely to be read adversarially later. Make each item say what is wrong, exactly where, with a photograph and a date — and keep the numbering stable so the list you issue at practical completion is recognisably the same list you close out months later.
That is the workflow Snagger is built around: pin each item on the actual drawing, photograph it, set priority and status, and issue a numbered PDF before you leave site. Later visits close items off against the original numbers rather than starting a new list nobody can reconcile with the first.