I have a subcontractor claiming for their retention. They’re contracted under the NEC ECS Option A.
There has been no completion certificate signed however the works are complete and there is a final account statement signed at a much later date than what they’re deeming their actual completion was.
How can I determine when the actual completion date was so I can release the retention in accordance with he contract? Also, I need this so I can then work out when to issue the defects cert 52 week and 2nd half of retention?
Can i just draft a completion cert and back-date this
Sounds like the contract procedures have not been fully followed. CL.11.2.(2) gives the definition of Completion. Note; the “Final Assessment” (payment) is undertaken 4 weeks after the Supervisor issues the Defects Certificate. It sounds like you are making this assessment too soon. In your example you would need to issue the Completion Certificate to the date they actually achieved it, this could be done by attaching it to a General Communication. The Defect Date will then be pegged to the date written on the Completion Certificate.
Correct, it appears that the contractual obligations haven’t been administered correctly.
Yes, I need to issue a completion certificate but my issue is determining when this was actually achieved?
I also have another subcontract with them as well where they have had their 1st half released but no completion cert was issued and they’re requesting their 2nd half to be released. I’m not entirely sure if I can release this as there was no completion cert issued
In your example I would try and estimate the date Completion was achieved. Are there any documents which might help with this - site diaries, supervisors records, quality inspection reports etc? If not then link it to the date on which you released the first half of the retention payment. There is no clear answer as you should not really be in this situation. You would need to agree with the Contractor the estimated date for Completion and move forward from there. If you are happy with the quality of the completed works, and they are mainly Defect free, then agree the release of the second part of the retention payment.
The other issue to consider here is when you will issue the Defects Certificate if the Completion Certificate was never issued. The answer is probably to try and estimate the Completion Date with the Contractor, and set a date to close out the contract via the Final Assessment (Defect Date + 4 weeks).