How to check whether a build stage is really complete

A construction stage is complete when the work described in the contract clause that defines it has actually been done, not when the site looks busy and not when the developer says so. Start from the clause, list what it requires, and check each requirement against the building as it stands.

Start with the clause, not with the building

Almost every dispute about a stage payment comes from reading the building first and the contract second. Photographs of a site with walls going up look like progress, and they are progress. But the question is not whether progress happened. It is whether this specific stage, as your contract defines it, has been reached.

Find the annex that lists the stages. Read the wording for the stage being invoiced, and write down each thing it requires as a separate line. A clause reading “structure complete including roof slab and external blockwork” is three requirements, not one, and a building can satisfy two of them convincingly.

What to check, requirement by requirement

• Is the element physically present, or only started? Blockwork to first floor is not blockwork.
• Is it present across the whole building, or on the elevation the photographs were taken from?
• Does the contract require it to be finished, or only installed? Screeded and tiled are different words.
• Are there elements of the stage that are covered by later work? Waterproofing and reinforcement stop being checkable once the next layer goes on.
• Does the specification annex name materials or dimensions? A stage built with a different material is not the stage described.

The evidence that actually settles it

Dated photographs of each requirement, tied to the clause they answer, are what turn an opinion into a record. Which requirement was photographed matters more than the image quality: a photograph of the corner the clause is about, on a known date, proves something that fifty photographs of whatever looked good that day do not.

Where a requirement is about to be covered up, the photograph is the only evidence that will ever exist. This is the single strongest argument for looking at a building during construction rather than at the end.

If it is not complete

Write to the developer, and the tone of that message matters less than its structure. A message that cites a clause, states an observation and asks a question is difficult to answer with reassurance, which is the point.

1. Write to the developer citing the clause number, not your impression.
2. State what the clause requires and what was observed, with the date of observation.
3. Ask them to confirm in writing that the stage is complete, or to say when it will be.
4. Keep paying whatever is genuinely due. Withholding an instalment that is properly triggered creates a default on your side and hands them the stronger position.

A stage is complete only when every requirement in its clause is met, checked one by one and backed by dated photographs, not when a certificate or a busy-looking site suggests it is. Read the clause before you read the building.