How do I know when a building stage is complete?
'Complete' is the most expensive undefined word in residential construction.
Defining it in advance costs nothing and removes most of the argument later.
A suggested milestone framework
These are suggestions only. Every project should adjust them to its own contract and payment stages.
- 01 Project commencement
- 02 Foundations complete
- 03 Structural shell complete
- 04 Watertight
- 05 First fix complete
- 06 Plaster and second fix
- 07 Practical completion
Turn each milestone into criteria
Each milestone should carry a short list of objective, checkable criteria, plus a note of what evidence is expected. Both parties acknowledge the list, and the acknowledgement is recorded with the date, time and version.
If the criteria change later, the previous version is retained along with who requested the change and who accepted it. Nothing is silently overwritten.
Then verify against the criteria
When the stage is reached, evidence is submitted and each criterion is assessed individually as satisfied, more evidence required, not satisfied, or not applicable. The overall outcome follows from that assessment, with comments where appropriate.
Important
This page is general information about how construction stage payments and independent milestone verification usually work. It is not legal advice, and it is not a statement about your own contract.
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