How to check whether a construction stage is really complete
A construction stage is complete when the work described in the contract clause that defines it has 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, taken from positions that can be repeated on the next visit, are what turn an opinion into a record. The repeatability matters more than the image quality: two photographs of the same corner six weeks apart prove something that fifty photographs from random angles 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
The tone of that letter 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.
- 01Write to the developer citing the clause number, not your impression.
- 02State what the clause requires and what was observed, with the date of observation.
- 03Ask them to confirm in writing that the stage is complete, or to say when it will be.
- 04Keep paying whatever is genuinely due. Withholding an instalment that is properly triggered creates a default on your side and hands them the stronger position.
Questions on this
Can I refuse to pay if the stage is not complete?
It depends on your contract, and it is a question for a lawyer rather than for us. What we can say is that the conversation is very different when you can point to a clause and a dated record than when you can only say the photographs look thin.
The developer sent a certificate signed by their engineer. Is that enough?
It is evidence, and it is evidence produced by the party being paid. Whether that is enough depends on how much money is attached to the stage and on whether the certificate addresses each requirement of the clause or simply asserts completion.
Read one before you buy one
The specimen shows the whole structure: status, what each payment was meant to buy, the forecast with its range, the photographic record and the limits of what was checked.