Practical completion: a record both sides sign

What this document does, and what it does not

Practical completion is the moment the works are finished enough for the client to use them, with only minor items outstanding. In the UK that is a contractual moment, not a legal one: there is no act of parliament that says what it is. It is in your contract — the JCT and NEC standard forms are the usual ones — and otherwise in whatever you and your client agreed.

So this document does not create a legal status. What it does is record, in one place and signed by both sides, what was agreed on the day: that the works reached practical completion, or reached it subject to a snagging list, or did not reach it at all.

That matters most when it is disputed later. A disagreement about a job almost never turns on whether the work was any good — it turns on what was agreed and when. A signed sheet with a date beats two different memories.

Three states, and the third one is the point

Most templates only offer the first two, and that is where they fail you. A client can refuse, and if they do you still need a record of the day — one you write, because they are not going to sign it. That is why the third state exists here and why the wording changes with it: on a refusal this document is your statement of what you found, not the client’s declaration.

Snags need a date, or they are not snags

A snagging list without dates is a wish list. Each item gets a description specific enough that someone else can tell whether it has been done, and a date it is to be completed by. That is what turns “we will sort that out” into something either side can point at.

In practice this is also what the money hangs on. Where the client holds retention — a percentage of the price kept back — the usual arrangement releases half at practical completion and the rest after the rectification period. No signed record, no first half. Snags not signed off, no second half. Whether your jobs work that way is a question about your contract, not about this form.

Practical completion does not start a guarantee

This is the one that costs people money, because it sounds like it should be true. Nothing about practical completion starts a warranty running. There is no British equivalent of a statutory defects period that begins on that date.

What does exist is an outer limit for going to court, and it is worth knowing precisely because it is so often mistaken for a guarantee. Under the Limitation Act 1980 an action on a simple contract cannot be brought more than six years after the cause of action accrued (section 5), and twelve years if the contract was made as a deed (section 8).

Two things follow, and both cut against the way it is usually quoted:

• It is a deadline, not a promise. Six years is how long someone has to sue, not how long you have guaranteed the work. Putting it on the completion document itself would read as a six-year warranty, which is why it is explained here and does not appear on the PDF this page produces.
• It does not run from practical completion. It runs from when the cause of action accrued. Those can be the same day and often are not, and a date printed next to your completion date would suggest otherwise.

Whatever workmanship guarantee you do give is a separate thing, and it comes from your contract or from a scheme you belong to — for an MCS installation, from the RECC or HIES consumer code that MCS membership requires. Say what it is on your own paperwork; this document does not assume one.

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Nothing you type goes to a server. There is no account and no email address, and the PDF is your own print dialogue — choose Save as PDF as the destination. It works on a phone on site.