JCT rectification period and schedule of defects, in plain terms

The close-out sequence in one view

The terms change slightly between forms, but the order is the same on the Standard Building Contract, Design and Build and Minor Works:

1. Practical completion. Certified by the architect or contract administrator (CA) under SBC and Minor Works. Under Design and Build the employer issues a Practical Completion Statement instead of a certificate.
2. Rectification period. Runs from practical completion. The contractor must put right defects that appear during it. This is what older contracts and most of the industry still call the defects liability period.
3. Schedule of defects. Issued as an instruction once the rectification period ends.
4. Certificate of Making Good. Issued once the scheduled defects are made good. Under Design and Build it is a Notice of Completion of Making Good. It releases the remaining retention and starts the clock towards the final certificate.

Practical completion and the snag list

“Snagging list” is not a defined term in the JCT standard forms. It is industry usage, and most JCT forms do not define practical completion itself either. Under SBC the CA certifies practical completion when, in their opinion, the works are practically complete and the health and safety file information and as-built information have been provided. Minor Works describes it as completion to all practical intents and purposes.

In practice, RICS guidance notes that the CA usually issues a snagging or defects list of minor items at practical completion. Where a contract has been amended to define practical completion, it is often certified subject to a snagging list. Whether outstanding items prevent practical completion has been argued in the courts for decades. The current position is that it is a question of fact and degree: can the employer take possession and use the works for their intended purpose? Trifling items need not hold it up.

That is why the snag list issued at practical completion matters. The rectification provisions may not expressly cover defects that were already obvious at practical completion, so a list attached to the certificate is the clearest record that those items were known and still have to be done.

The rectification period

The rectification period starts at practical completion and its length is whatever the Contract Particulars say. If they state nothing, the defaults are:

• Standard Building Contract and Design and Build: 6 months from practical completion.
• Minor Works: 3 months from practical completion, unless otherwise agreed.

Parties often choose 12 or 24 months instead, particularly where building services need a full heating and cooling season to show their faults. RICS guidance published in 2024 still gives the 6 month default, and none of the commentary on the JCT 2024 editions reports a change to it. Check the particulars on your own project rather than assuming either figure.

During the period, defects can be notified as they appear. Keep adding them to the same register you used at practical completion, with new numbers, rather than starting a fresh list. A single register shows which items are snags carried over from completion and which are new defects that appeared in use, and that distinction is often what a later disagreement turns on.

The schedule of defects

Under SBC the CA may issue a schedule of defects as an instruction no later than 14 days after the rectification period expires. Individual instructions to make good defects can be given until the schedule is issued, but not after that 14 day point. Minor Works has an equivalent: the CA must notify defects not later than 14 days after the rectification period ends.

Fourteen days is not long to produce a document that decides what the contractor still has to do. Plan the end of period inspection before the expiry date, and work from the register you already hold:

• Re-inspect every item still open from practical completion and every defect notified during the period.
• Record anything new found on the end of period walk.
• Mark items made good with an after photo and the date, rather than deleting them.
• Issue the schedule as the open items only, with the full register available as backup.

The guide to the end of defects period inspection covers that walk in more detail.

Making good and retention

Retention is the part of each interim payment held back as security for completion and defects. Under SBC 2024 the default is 3% unless the Contract Particulars state otherwise, halved for work that has reached practical completion. Minor Works defaults to 5%, again halved after practical completion. The second half is released when the Certificate of Making Good is issued, so an open item on the schedule of defects can hold back money owed to the contractor and, through them, to their subcontractors.

For a contractor that is the practical reason to close the schedule quickly and to evidence each item as it is done. For an employer or CA it is the reason to issue a clear schedule on time: a vague one invites argument about what was ever asked for.

Keep records that will hold up later

The documents above are only as good as the record behind them. Each item should keep its number from first sighting to sign off, with its photographs, trade, dates and the note that closed it. If the rectification period is 12 or 24 months, the person who issues the schedule may not be the person who walked the job at practical completion.

Site Audit keeps that register on an Android phone. Each snag carries its photos, location, trade, priority, due date, status and resolution notes, and the app produces a full PDF for the CA, a filtered PDF for each subcontractor and a CSV register for Excel. See construction snagging software for how that works on a contractor’s side, and sending a defect list to contractors for the issuing step.