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Deficiency lists that actually get closed

By Review.LivePublished 3 min readHow we write

The consultant's third deficiency review of a 60-suite building arrives by email at 8:05 on a Monday. It lists 212 items, including 74 that the trades marked complete after the last round. Nearly half the entries read like "touch-ups, suite 304" or "fix door", and the owner wants occupancy in five weeks.

An empty, newly finished apartment with white walls, light plank flooring, kitchen cabinets and a glazed balcony door.
Photo: Point3D Commercial Imaging Ltd. on Unsplash

A deficiency list — a punch list, in US usage — stops closing when an item cannot be acted on without a conversation: no exact location, no photo, no trade, no date. It grows when trades mark items done and nobody checks, so each review round finds the last round's items again. The list is also a formal record: the Canadian federal government's interim certificate of substantial performance, for example, certifies the work complete "except the portion of work described on the attached list", so a vague item becomes a vague obligation.

  1. Write one defect per item, in words a trade can act on: what is wrong and what fixed looks like.
  2. Locate it exactly: building, level, suite or room, wall or gridline, with a pin on the plan where rooms repeat.
  3. Attach a photo that shows the defect and enough of the room to find it.
  4. Give each item one responsible trade and a due date, and send each trade only its own items.
  5. Verify before closing: the trade marks the item complete, then your own staff check and photograph the corrected work.
  6. Report counts weekly by trade — open, marked complete, verified — so a slow trade is visible early.

Common mistakes

  • One item that bundles several defects, so it is never fully done.
  • Closing items on the trade's word without checking them.
  • Sending every trade the whole list and hoping each finds its own items.
  • Deleting items instead of closing them, so nobody can show when or how they were fixed.

Checklist

Every item on the list has

  • One defect, described so the fix is clear
  • An exact location, with a plan pin where rooms repeat
  • A photo of the defect
  • One responsible trade and a due date
  • A check and a photo by your own staff before it closes
  • A place in the weekly count by trade

Check your understanding

A trade marks 40 items complete overnight. Why not close them straight away?

Show the answer
Because "complete" is the trade's claim, and the list only shrinks for good when someone else has checked the work. Items closed unchecked tend to reappear on the consultant's next review, where they cost more time than the check would have. Check them, photograph the corrected work, and close only what passes.

Sources

  1. Certification of substantial performance (interim): PWGSC-TPSGC 1796Public Services and Procurement Canada · Canada (federal government construction contracts) · accessed

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