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Completion
Before the expiration of the defects liability period, the architect must give written notification to the contractor of all building and engineering items which have proved defective or are still incomplete.
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When all items have been rectified and/or completed satisfactorily the Final Certificate can be issued, accounting for any previously unresolved variations and releasing the remainder of retention monies or bank guarantees. Before the architect will be in a position to issue or make decisions on defects lists or certificates in connection with either practical completion or completion, they must obtain from the specialist consultants equivalent lists and certificates for those sections of the works that come under their respective responsibilities.
Maintenance and operation manuals
To assist the client with maintaining and operating the building, it is common to provide them with maintenance and operation manuals. The specialist consultant should take care to specify the requirements for these manuals, which should be prepared by the subcontractor under the supervision of the contractor.
Such manuals should include:
- notes on operation, cleaning and maintenance of plant and equipment
- warranties on specified materials, installations and items of equipment, lists of subcontractors, suppliers, tradespeople, etc
- names and addresses of specialist consultants.
It is usual to specify in the subcontract that the relevant subcontractor supply all necessary information to the specialist consultant for checking prior to inclusion in the maintenance and operation manuals. In large installations, separate manuals for each type of engineering (eg lifts, air-conditioning) may be produced. On receipt of all the required information, including the building items, the architect should, with the assistance of the specialist consultant, check the details of the maintenance and operation manuals and forward the documents to the client.
Service and maintenance proposals
It is important that during the defects-liability period the client does not 'interfere' with any plant or installations in such a way as to lessen or void the subcontractor's responsibility. In addition, the architect and specialist consultants should recommend that the client enter into maintenance agreements after expiry of the defects-liability period to ensure regular servicing of essential plant and equipment, unless the client employs in-house maintenance staff with knowledge and skills appropriate to the particular plant and equipment.
The architect should ask the specialist consultant to inform them of the servicing requirements of all items with which they have been concerned. Servicing and maintenance proposals are a recurring expense to the client and it may be appropriate in certain circumstances to call for proposals to carry out such work so that they can be evaluated in conjunction with the tender.
'As built' drawings
The provision of as built drawings should not be accepted lightly by the architect and the specialist consultants without detailed consideration. Along with, or even separate from a maintenance and operation manual it might be desirable to obtain, for the client's use and/or records, as-built drawings of the services installations, such as mechanical, electrical, lift, plumbing, sewerage, drainage and other piped, wired or ducted systems.
The supply of as built drawings should be determined by agreement as necessary between owner, architect and specialist consultant and the requirements should be clearly detailed in the consultant's specification.
It may be appropriate for the architect to request the specialist consultant to provide a package of all record copies of the specialist consultants documentation inclusive of the last issue of each document for archiving and future reference purposes.
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