Determining practical completion, working through the defects list, instructing rectification during the liability period, and issuing the final certificate.
The builder says it is finished. It is clean, the fridge fits, and attached to the sentence is an invoice for the final payment. This is the moment at which almost everything you have left to bargain with is about to walk out of the building.
Practical completion is not the same as finished. It is the point at which the work is complete enough for you to move in and use the house, with a list of minor items still outstanding. Somebody has to determine that, and it should not be the person who benefits from it being true. Once you are living in it and the money has gone, the incentive to come back for a door that catches is largely gone with it.
So the last month is worth doing slowly. Walk it properly, in daylight, with a written list. Then walk it again after the first heavy rain.
Practical completion is not finished. It is finished enough — and that gap is your remaining leverage.
Practical completion is the point where the house is finished enough to live in, with small items outstanding. The defects liability period is the months afterwards in which the builder returns to fix what emerges. Someone has to determine both, and hold the builder to them.
Ending well. The last month of a build shapes how the whole two years is remembered, and this is where a project either finishes cleanly or trails off into a year of unanswered messages about a door that doesn't close.
Practical completion is whenever the builder says it is. The defects list is written by the person who has to fix it. Final payment is released before the work is complete, at which point the leverage is gone and so, usually, is the builder.
The last month shapes how the whole two years is remembered. So I determine practical completion rather than leave it to the person who wants to be paid, write the defects list myself, and hold the builder to it through the liability period before the final certificate is issued. Projects that trail off do so here — final payment released, leverage gone, and a year of unanswered messages about a door that does not close. Ending well is a deliberate act.
It is the point where the building work is complete except for minor defects and minor omissions, and the house can be used for its intended purpose. It is a contractual determination, not a feeling, and it triggers real consequences: the final payment usually becomes due, the defects liability period starts running, insurance and risk typically pass to you, and any liquidated damages for late completion stop. Because so much hangs on it, it should be determined by somebody independent against the contract documents, with a written list of what remains outstanding attached to the determination.
It is set by your contract rather than by statute, and six or twelve months are both common — read yours and know which you have. During that period the builder is obliged to return and rectify defects that appear. Keep this separate in your mind from the QBCC's own rectification framework, which runs on different timeframes: broadly, complaints about non-structural defective work are made within twelve months of the work, and structural defects within six years and six months. Those are your backstop if the builder will not come back, not your first move.
Your contract sets the response time, and most standard domestic forms give the builder a reasonable period after written notice. In practice, keep every notification in writing with dates, photographs and a reference number for each item, and send one consolidated list rather than a drip of texts. If the builder stops responding, the QBCC complaint process can result in a direction to rectify, within the timeframes above. Do not let the defects period lapse quietly while you wait for a reply — the notification date is what protects you, so put it in writing early.
Open, close and lock every door and window. Run every tap, fill and drain every basin, bath and shower, and check the fall to every floor waste. Sound the tiles for drummy spots. Look at paint and plaster under raking light rather than overhead light. Test every switch, power point and light against the electrical plan. Check smoke alarms, hot water, and the operation of anything mechanical. Collect keys, remotes, manuals, warranties, the certifier's final inspection certificate and the warranty insurance certificate. Then do it again on a wet day and check for water where water should not be.
After practical completion has been properly determined, the outstanding items list is agreed in writing, and the certifier's final inspection certificate has been issued. That certificate is a separate document from anything the builder gives you, and you want it — it matters at resale and it is the record that the work was inspected. Pay what the contract requires and no earlier. Once the final payment is made, your practical leverage is the defects liability period and the QBCC, both of which work, and both of which are slower than a builder who still wants to be paid.
If you would rather start small, the First Sketch Session is two hours at your place. You keep the sketches, and there is no obligation afterwards.