Defects Date

The NEC defects date is the cut-off for the contract's process of searching for and notifying Defects. It is set in the Contract Data as a number of weeks counted from Completion of the whole of the works. It's not the end of the Contractor's liability, and treating it that way is the most common mistake.

Because it's an identified term (in italics), you won't find it in the list at clause 11.2. It's what the Contract Data entry says it is. For how it plays out on site, the guide to the defects date in practice goes further. This page is part of the NEC definitions glossary.

What stops at the defects date

Thing	Effect of the date	NEC4	NEC3
Instructing a search for a Defect	Available up to this date	43.1	42.1
Notifying a Defect under the contract's process	Available up to this date	43.2	42.2
Defects Certificate	Timing is linked to it	44.3	43.3
Failure to give access for correction	Tested against it	46.2	45.2

What doesn't stop is the Client's right to pursue a Defect nobody found or notified. The certificate clause preserves that. How long the right lasts is a matter for the law of the contract, limitation periods and any limits under Option X18.

How it's different from a defects liability period

People moving from other standard forms often assume this is a defects liability or rectification period with a new name. It isn't quite the same thing, because NEC separates the ideas:

• The defects date fixes how long the contract's notification procedure runs.
• The defect correction period fixes how long each repair may take.
• The Defects Certificate records what was left at the end.

Three separate pieces do what other contracts sometimes pack into one phrase, so a letter saying "the defects period has ended" could mean any of them. Use the NEC term.

A worked example

A fictional office fit-out, with illustrative dates. The Contract Data puts the defects date 52 weeks on from Completion of all the works. Completion is certified as 2 March one year, so the defects date falls on 1 March the next.

• February: a cooling fault appears. The Supervisor notifies it. It's within time, so the correction period runs and the Contractor comes back.
• The following April: a ceiling grid shows a fault. The notification route has closed. The Client can't use the procedure with its correction period and cost assessment.
• What's left: the Client may still have a claim, but it's now a claim under the general law and not a routine contract step. That's slower, costlier and less certain for everyone.

This is why a Client should run a proper end-of-period inspection a few weeks before the date, with time left to notify what's found.

Setting it

A common choice is one full year so that the building sees all four seasons, but that's a judgement. There's no required period in the form. Things to consider:

• Do any systems need a full heating and cooling cycle to prove themselves?
• Will the Client occupy straight away, or will parts sit unused, so faults stay hidden?
• Does the date line up with your insurance and any bonds?
• Is Option X5 in use? The date stays tied to Completion of the whole of the works, so an early section has a longer effective period.
• Does a subcontract need a later date, so the supply chain stays on the hook until the main contract's date has passed?

What people get wrong

• Describing it as a fixed calendar date in reports. It moves if Completion moves. Don't state it until Completion has been certified.
• Assuming take over starts it. Early use or take over of a part doesn't start the period under the standard wording; it's tied to the whole of the works.
• Telling the Contractor "you're off the hook". Rights in unnotified Defects survive, as above.

Related guides

• NEC Definitions: A Glossary of Key Terms
• Early Warning Register
• Equipment
• Fee
• Defect Correction Period
• Defects Certificate

This guide is general information in our own words, not legal advice. Your contract and its Contract Data always govern. NEC, NEC3 and NEC4 are trade marks of Thomas Telford Ltd; Contract Status is not affiliated with or endorsed by NEC.