How to use Checka at your practical completion inspection

Your practical completion inspection is the single most consequential walkthrough of your build — the formal moment where you assess whether your new home meets what was contracted, and the last point at which you can raise defects before the legal and financial dynamics shift significantly in your builder’s favour. Going in with a method, the right tool, and a clear understanding of what you’re doing and why makes the difference between leaving with a watertight defect record and leaving with a vague list that your builder can quietly ignore.

What practical completion actually means — and why the date matters

“Practical completion” is a term that appears in almost every Australian residential building contract — HIA, MBA, and most builder-specific contracts all use it — but it is frequently misunderstood by homeowners.

Practical completion is not the same as finished. Under most standard contracts, practical completion is reached when the building works described in the contract have been substantially completed and the home is suitable for occupation, even if minor defects or outstanding items remain. The builder issues a notice of practical completion, and if you accept it, the legal clock starts ticking.

That clock matters for several reasons.

First, it triggers the defects liability period (DLP) — the contractual period during which your builder is required to return and rectify any defects that were not apparent at handover, or that emerged shortly after. The DLP is typically 13 weeks to 12 months depending on your contract and state. In Queensland, the QBCC Home Warranty Insurance scheme and the QBCC Act set minimum standards for this period. In NSW, the Home Building Act 1989 governs warranty obligations. In Victoria, the Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995 applies.

Second, practical completion is the date from which statutory warranty periods run in most states. For major defects — structural failures and waterproofing failures specifically — warranty periods extend to 6 years in Queensland and NSW and up to 10 years in Victoria. The day you accept practical completion is day one of those periods. If you accept early because you were rushed, you don’t get those days back.

Third, once you accept practical completion and take possession, certain legal remedies become more difficult to exercise. Refusing to accept a home with genuinely incomplete or significantly defective work is your right — but it is a right that exists before acceptance, not after it.

How most practical completion inspections go wrong

The practical completion inspection (PCI) is often the first time a homeowner has seen their completed home, which means there is a natural pull toward excitement rather than scrutiny. Builders sometimes exploit this. Common failure modes include:

Rushing the walkthrough. A builder’s site supervisor with a busy afternoon will naturally move the inspection at their pace. A full, methodical PCI takes at minimum two to three hours for a standard house — often longer. If your builder is pushing to get through it in 45 minutes, slow down. You are not obliged to match their schedule.

No independent record kept. Many homeowners go through a PCI with a builder’s representative, agree verbally on items to be fixed, and leave without a written record. Verbal commitments at a PCI are not enforceable. If it’s not written down and acknowledged by the builder in writing, it did not happen.

Relying on memory. Without a systematic, room-by-room approach, you will miss things. The human brain is not designed to hold 40 separate defect observations from a two-hour walkthrough. By the time you get home and try to write a list from memory, you will already have lost detail.

Accepting under pressure. “You need to accept today or the handover certificate doesn’t go through and settlement can’t happen” is a variation of a line some homeowners hear. Understand your contract terms — you have the right to provide a written defects list and withhold acceptance until genuinely outstanding items are agreed. If you are unsure of your rights, your state building authority (QBCC in Queensland, NSW Fair Trading, Consumer Affairs Victoria) can provide guidance.

What to do before the PCI

Preparation before the day is not optional.

Review your contract and approved plans. Every fixture, finish, and fitting in your home was specified somewhere in your contract documentation. Bring the plans — printed or on your phone — and cross-reference as you walk through. A builder substituting a specified tapware brand, tile colour, or appliance model without written variation approval is a defect. You cannot identify these substitutions without the contract documents in hand.

Commission an independent inspector. A qualified private building inspector — look for membership of the Australian Institute of Building Surveyors (AIBS) or equivalent professional body — brings expertise, professional indemnity insurance, and the credibility of a third-party professional opinion. Inspectors who specialise in PCIs know exactly where to look and what tests to run. They typically charge between $400 and $700 and are worth considerably more than that cost if they identify defects you would otherwise have missed.

Understand what the inspection stages before yours should have already covered. If you commissioned stage inspections during your build, those reports form the baseline for your PCI. Any defects identified at earlier stages — frame, lockup, fixing — that were not rectified should still be on your live list. Building inspection stages explained covers what each stage inspection covers and when to commission them.

Charge your phone and clear your schedule. You will be logging defects in real time throughout the inspection. Make sure you have capacity for photos and that you are not under time pressure.

Running the walkthrough: a system that works

The most reliable approach to a PCI is a systematic room-by-room sweep, covering each building system within each space. Working randomly — following what catches your eye — guarantees you miss areas and creates gaps in your record.

Structure and waterproofing — look first, look carefully

Start with the highest-stakes items: anything structural and anything water-related. These are the defects that are hardest to fix post-handover and that attract the longest warranty periods.

In wet areas — bathrooms, ensuite, laundry, powder room — tap every tile with a hard object. A hollow sound indicates the tile is not fully bedded to its substrate and water can move underneath it. Check every floor-to-wall junction in showers and around baths for grout cracking, gaps, or missing sealant. The NCC calls up AS 3740 for waterproofing of domestic wet areas — any gap in the membrane at a junction, around a penetration, or at a drain represents a non-compliance, not just an aesthetic issue. Photograph every wet area junction closely, even if it looks fine — you want a timestamped record of the condition at handover.

On balconies and external areas, look for drainage falls. Water should drain away from the building, not pool at the base of walls or in the centre of the surface. Incorrect drainage falls on a balcony are a defect under AS 3740 and often a precursor to expensive water ingress.

Check the roof externally if possible (or ask your inspector to). Flashings around penetrations, ridge capping, and valley gutters are common sources of water ingress in new builds.

Electrical and plumbing

Test every power point in every room with a phone charger or plug tester — not just a visual inspection. Test every light switch. Check that the switchboard is labelled and that RCDs (residual current devices) are present on all circuits requiring them under AS/NZS 3000.

For plumbing: run every tap and check hot and cold orientation is correct. Check under every sink and vanity for drips or signs of moisture. Run every shower. Flush every toilet. Check that the hot water system is operational and that the pressure relief valve drain terminates correctly.

Finishes and joinery

For plasterboard surfaces, AS/NZS 2589 sets tolerances for surface deviation and finish quality by level. Hold a torch or work light at a raking angle along walls and ceilings — this is the only reliable way to identify surface undulation that will show through paint in natural light. Photograph any deviation you identify in raking light; the contrast makes the issue visible in a way that straight-on photography does not.

Check all cabinetry — kitchen, bathrooms, laundry, wardrobes. Open every door and drawer. They should open smoothly and close flush. Gaps between doors should be consistent. Drawer slides should not bind.

Check floor tiles for lippage (the height difference between adjacent tiles). AS 3958 defines acceptable lippage limits. For timber or laminate flooring, check for gaps at boards, cupping, or squeaking underfoot.

Inspect all paintwork for consistent coverage, runs, missed areas, and colour variation — particularly in transitions between rooms and at cornices.

External

Check the roof from outside if access is available. Check gutters and downpipes for correct fall and secure attachment. Inspect external cladding or render for cracking, inconsistent finish, or missing sealant at junctions.

Check all external doors and windows open, close, and lock correctly. Fly screens should be correctly fitted and undamaged. Check that the garage door operates on both automated and manual modes and that remote controls work.

Check site clearance — the site should be left clean and free of building materials, offcuts, and rubbish under most standard contracts.

How to use Checka during the walkthrough

The most effective approach is to log each defect as you find it — not to take notes and log later. By the time you get home, you will have lost specificity about location, and photos not tagged to a specific defect observation are far less useful.

In Checka, for each defect: take a photo, add a short voice description or type a note, and tag the room or location. Checka’s AI classification then processes your description and photo and returns structured defect data — category, severity, and the applicable standard. You don’t need to know whether something is a finish defect or a waterproofing defect, or whether it’s governed by AS 3740 or AS/NZS 2589. You describe what you see; the AI provides the framework.

At the end of the walkthrough, Checka generates a formatted report of every logged defect — with photos, descriptions, AI classifications, and location tags — that you can share with your builder directly from the app.

What to do at the end of the inspection

Before you leave the site, you need to hand your builder’s representative a written defects list — not a verbal summary, a written document. This is the moment that matters most.

Your written defects list (sometimes called a defects and omissions list, or in the US context a “punch list”) should:

• List every defect by room and location
• Include a brief description of each item
• Note whether the item is a defect against the contract specification, a non-compliance with an applicable standard, or an outstanding item not completed

Hand it to the builder’s representative in person and confirm they have received it. Follow up immediately with an email copy to the builder’s registered contact address. The email creates a timestamped, non-repudiable record of delivery.

Do not sign the practical completion certificate on the day unless you are satisfied that you have a clear, written agreement from the builder about how every outstanding item will be resolved and when. If the builder refuses to acknowledge the defects list, contact your state building authority before signing.

What happens next: DLP and statutory warranties

Once practical completion is accepted, the defects liability period begins. Under the QBCC Act in Queensland, the DLP is a minimum 12 months for residential building work. Under the NSW Home Building Act 1989, the contractor warranty period for defects and omissions runs for 12 months from completion. Victoria’s Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995 provides for a defects warranty period that your contract should specify.

During the DLP, monitor the home actively. Some defects — particularly waterproofing failures and plasterboard cracking — are not visible at handover and emerge weeks or months after regular use begins. When you identify a defect during the DLP, notify the builder in writing promptly. Do not wait until the DLP is about to expire before raising items.

For major defects that emerge after the DLP has expired, your statutory warranty rights remain. QBCC Home Warranty Insurance in Queensland covers major defects for up to 6 years from practical completion (and up to 3.5 years for non-structural elements). The NSW Home Building Act warranty period for major defects is 6 years. Victoria provides 10 years for structural defects specifically.

If a builder disputes a defect or fails to respond within a reasonable timeframe, you can escalate to QBCC (qbcc.qld.gov.au), NSW Fair Trading (fairtrading.nsw.gov.au), or Domestic Building Dispute Resolution Victoria (dbdrv.vic.gov.au) — all offer dispute resolution before tribunal proceedings. NCAT, VCAT, and QCAT are the relevant tribunals for formal disputes in NSW, Victoria, and Queensland respectively.

Once your PCI report is in hand and you’re tracking defects through the DLP, the workflow for managing the list — prioritising what needs immediate attention, communicating formally with your builder, and escalating if needed — is covered in detail in what to do with your building inspection report.

Key takeaways

• Practical completion is not “finished” — it is the legal acceptance point that starts your DLP and statutory warranty clock; do not accept under pressure before you have a complete written defects record
• The DLP runs from practical completion and is typically 12 months in Queensland and NSW — notify the builder in writing for every defect discovered during this period
• Major defects (structural and waterproofing) attract statutory warranty periods of 6 years in Queensland and NSW, and up to 10 years for structural defects in Victoria
• Always conduct a systematic room-by-room walkthrough — tap every tile in wet areas, test every power point and tap, check plasterboard in raking light, and compare every specification against your contract plans
• Hand your builder a written defects list before you leave the site and follow up by email immediately — verbal agreements at a PCI are not enforceable
• QBCC (QLD), NSW Fair Trading (NSW), and DBDRV (VIC) all offer dispute resolution pathways before tribunal proceedings if your builder fails to respond to or disputes your defect list