DLP defect tracking
Defect tracking for the defects liability period.
IssuesId runs the twelve months after practical completion as a job: owners report defects from their phone, the trade who has left site gets a link and fixes it with a photo, overdue items chase themselves, and the final DLP inspection starts from a register that is already current.
ONE REGISTER FROM PC·OWNER QR REPORTING·NO-LOGIN TRADE LINKS·BACKCHARGES ON THE RECORD
DLP register · Block A12 months
PCHandover · 38 items open at PC carried into DLP
M2Owner 1204 · ensuite mixer drips · via QR card
M2Issued to Coastal Plumbing · due 7 days
M3Overdue 48 h · trade + DLP manager notified
M3Reissued to Bayside Plumbing · cost to Coastal · backcharge
M3Fixed with photo · verified and closed
M11Final walk · DLP register printed · 3 open
The period
A twelve-month job with no job number
The defects liability period is written into the contract and then, at most builders, run from an inbox. The project team demobs at practical completion. The site manager moves to the next build. For the next year the building keeps producing defects, one email at a time, into a process with nobody on it: forwarded from info@ to a director to the site manager, who replies “I think that was Dave” from a car park.
Nothing about it is unusual work. It is defects, trades, due dates and sign-off, which is what the build ran on for two years. The difference is that the people who ran it have gone, so the record has to do what the site manager used to do from memory. We wrote the longer argument in DLP defects after the trades have gone.
How it runs
From handover to the final DLP inspection
01
Carry the register over at PC
The DLP starts with the items still open at practical completion, and they should not move into a new spreadsheet to get there. The same register runs on. Items that fail inside the period go in as Type Warranty rather than Defect, so a filter gives you the DLP list without a second system, and the build’s defect numbers stay honest for the next tender. How the fields work is in defects.
02
Let the owners report it properly
The owners are in the building every day and will find things before you do. Hand them a QR card at settlement. A scan offers a short form, and the first time it creates a pending request that someone on your side approves, so a stranger in the lobby cannot get in. After that, the owner photographs the drip and the item lands in your register against their unit, with the time on it. They see their own items move, with the costs and the contractors’ names left out, and they cannot change a status. The whole flow is in how tenants report maintenance without calling.
03
Reach the trade who has left site
The plumber who fitted the mixer finished in March and is on another job. He will not install an app or remember a password for a building he has left. He gets an email with a link that opens the item directly on his phone, no account, sees the photo, attends, and marks it done with a photo of the fix. He cannot close it. Someone on your side does, after looking at the photo, and the close carries their name, role and time. See trades, tenants and clients.
04
When he does not come back
Send someone else, and let the record say so. Each item carries who is doing the work and, separately, who wears the cost, with a cost category of Defect, Variation or Backcharge. The second plumber fixes the mixer, the first is the cost-to contractor, and the backcharge is on the record the day it happens instead of being an argument at the end of the period.
05
Nothing waits on someone remembering
Every item gets a due date when it comes in, and workflow rules do the chasing: overdue by 48 hours, notify the trade and whoever runs the DLP; overdue by a week, escalate to a director. Immediate for the items that matter, a Monday digest for the rest. The rule fires whether or not anyone has thought about the building that week.
06
Month eleven is a filter and a report
The final DLP inspection starts from the register, not from a pile of emails. Filter to the building and the period and print it as a report: every item logged since PC, when it was reported, who attended, the before and after photos, and who verified the close. That document is what the retention conversation turns on.
After the builder
The owners corporation inherits the same record
On a strata building the DLP overlaps the owners corporation’s first year, and in some states a building bond or a defect report hangs on what was raised and when. The common-property items logged in the DLP are the evidence that conversation needs: dated, photographed, attributed to whoever reported them, and with the builder’s response on the record. The strata page covers the common-property register from the owners corporation’s side.
Frequently asked
DLP defect tracking questions
What is a defects liability period?
The period after practical completion during which the builder has to come back and fix defects that appear, set by the contract and commonly twelve months on Australian building contracts. Retention or security is usually held until it ends, which is why the record of what was reported, who attended and what was closed during the period matters when it does.
How do you track defects during the DLP?
On the same register the build ran on, carried over at practical completion rather than restarted in a spreadsheet. Items that fail inside the period go in as Type Warranty so they can be filtered as the DLP list, each one is issued to a trade with a due date, overdue items are escalated by workflow rules, and each is closed by someone on the builder’s side after the trade uploads a photo of the fix. At month eleven the register filtered to the building is the report for the final inspection.
How do owners report defects during the DLP?
From a QR card handed over at settlement. Scanning it offers a short form, and the first time it creates a pending request that someone approves before the owner can log in, so nobody gets in from a lobby scan alone. Once approved, the owner photographs the problem and the item lands in the register against their unit with the time on it. Owners see their own items and their status, without costs or contractor names, and cannot change a status.
What if the original trade will not come back?
Issue the item to another contractor and record the original one as the cost-to contractor, with a cost category of backcharge. The record then shows who fixed it, who pays, and when each was decided, rather than leaving the backcharge to be argued at the end of the period with no paperwork behind it.
Also built for
Builders →Practical completion, the handover pack, and the month-eleven DLP call answered from the record.Real estate agencies →Tenants raise a maintenance request with a photo; it routes to the trade and closes with proof.Property managers →Maintenance and defects across a residential portfolio, with an audit-logged record for every owner.Strata & owners corporations →The common-property defect register: by unit and level, dated photos, and the trail the inspector reads.Facilities management →Reactive faults and condition walks in commercial buildings, logged by room and closed on evidence.Manufacturing →Line inspections with hold points, non-conformances, and an ISO 9001-ready audit trail.Logistics & warehousing →Pre-trip, asset and facility inspections with photo proof of condition at the dock.Data centres →Install checks with hold points and the commissioning punch list, filed by hall and room.