Defect Liability Period Tracking Agent

A defect-liability item is ready for quality when it carries three facts from evidence: a cite to the defect, a responsible party or a deliberate blank, and the expiry that governs that item. A row that only says "balcony leak, chasing plumber" is a note, not a tracked liability.

The cite is something a commercial lead can open without guessing: a snag ID from the handover inspection, a photo with a grid location, a marked-up drawing, or a paragraph in a consultant report. The agent does not create a defect because someone mentioned finishes on a call. If the source does not identify a defect, nothing is logged.

The responsible party is the subcontract package that owns rectification under the contract, not the person who answered the phone. If the package cannot be read from the cite and the trade breakdown, the field stays empty. Empty tells the commercial lead the register is incomplete. A guessed trade is a misdirected instruction.

Expiry is the last day of the defect liability period that applies to that obligation. It is not practical completion, and it is not the date the item was first spotted. Using practical completion as the DLP start is a common register error. The chase calendar then fires too early or treats the item as expired while the period is still running.

Handover already produces related artefacts. A handover package completeness check tells you whether the DLP register and warranties were issued at all. This page is about keeping live items honest after that package exists. Construction punch items that are still open belong with an open defect aging monitor. DLP tracking starts when the liability period is running.

Start from sources that already name a defect: the practical completion inspection list, consultant comments, tenant or facilities reports, and items that moved from the construction punch list into the liability period. Log what those sources state. Do not merge three emails into one "water ingress, level 4" row if they describe different locations.

Each log entry should capture location at a level a subcontractor can attend; the defect as stated in the source, not a rewritten diagnosis; a cite with document, photo, or inspection ID and the observation date; the DLP start taken from the contract or the DLP register; and status as open, assigned, chased, or evidence received. Status is never closed from a chase alone.

The DLP start date comes from the instrument that starts the period, often a DLP certificate or the clause that names the trigger. Do not infer it from practical completion unless the contract says those dates coincide. If the register copied the PC date into every start column, correct that column before you log new items against it. Otherwise every chase and expiry calculation is wrong.

Project systems such as Procore and Autodesk field-issue tools already hold punch and snag records. Treat them as a class of registers. Pull items that sit in the DLP window. Do not duplicate a closed construction snag as a new DLP defect, and do not invent rows to fill a template. If the platform list is empty, the DLP list is empty until a real cite appears.

When a facilities email is vague, request a location and a photo. Do not file a placeholder defect. Placeholder rows get assigned, chased, and closed against nothing.

Assignment is a commercial act. The agent proposes a package only when the cite plus the subcontract scope make the owner unambiguous. Staining under a balcony outlet is not automatically the plumber because water is involved. If the drawings and the package split put membrane and outlets with different trades, the agent cites both sources and still leaves assignment empty until the lead picks.

Wrong-trade assignment burns programme and goodwill. The roofing subcontractor attends a facade leak, finds no roof involvement, and the clock keeps running. The register looks assigned, so nobody escalates. Quality rejects an assignment that cannot point to the clause, drawing, or package description that justifies it.

If two packages could own the item, do not pick the one that still has retention. That is how DLP becomes a dumping ground for unpaid work. Keep assignment disputes on the same facts as subcontractor final payment verification, but do not close a DLP item because a final account was certified.

Leave the responsible-party field empty when the cite does not name an element that maps to one package, when the contract documents conflict, or when the defect might be design rather than workmanship and that has not been decided. Empty stays empty. The commercial lead fills it or commissions a diagnosis. The agent does not auto-assign to "builder" as a default.

Chasing is a dated instruction to the assigned party, with the cite and the expiry restated. It is not proof the work was done.

Build the chase calendar from DLP start plus the period in the contract for that obligation, not from practical completion unless those dates are the same in the deed. A register that copies practical completion into the DLP start column will either chase subcontractors months too soon or go quiet while items are still live. Recheck that column against warranty register extraction when plant and product warranties run on different clocks from the building DLP.

Cadence should tighten as expiry approaches: notify, remind, then escalate to the commercial lead with the item still open. Record each chase with date, recipient, and remaining time. Do not flip status to closed because the subcontractor replied that they will attend, or because someone uploaded a photo of the area while it was still wet.

Unassigned items still need a chase, but the chase goes to the lead: expiry approaching, no responsible party, cite attached. That is not an assignment. It is a warning that the register is incomplete.

If the period has already expired, stop chasing as if the item were live. Flag expiry as missed, keep the cite, and leave next steps to the commercial process. The agent does not extend DLP by sending more emails.

Quality closure needs evidence that the logged defect was rectified, not that someone visited. Acceptable evidence is a dated record that matches the cite: a reinspection note, consultant sign-off, or a photo of the same location and the repaired element, reviewed by a person who can judge the trade. A wide-angle photo of a balcony is not confirmation that the outlet was resealed.

Do not auto-close. The agent can assemble the candidate pack (original cite, assignment, chase history, purported evidence) and mark the item as evidence submitted. A person confirms or rejects. Rejected evidence returns the item to open with the expiry unchanged.

Closing from a photo is the second classic failure. The file proves someone stood nearby. It does not prove the membrane was replaced, the fall was corrected, or the stain source was found. If the evidence does not address the defect as logged, status stays open.

Do not treat a chase as rectification. A complete chase history with no reinspection is still an open item.

After practical completion on a commercial mid-rise, facilities reports staining on the soffit under a Level 4 balcony outlet. The inspection photo and grid reference are the cite. The DLP register had copied the practical completion date into every start column. The contract starts DLP on the date of the DLP certificate, issued later. The agent logs the defect with the photo cite, sets expiry from the certificate rather than from practical completion, and does not assign hydraulics because the architectural package includes the balcony membrane and the hydraulics package includes the outlet. Assignment stays empty. The lead names waterproofing after checking the drawings. Chases go to that subcontractor with the cite and the corrected expiry. A phone photo of the balcony deck is not accepted as closure. The item stays open until a reinspection of the soffit and outlet is on file. That is the quality bar: cite, party, expiry, and closure only on matching evidence.