Negombo Commercial Building: The Certificate the Bank Is Waiting For
On a four-storey commercial building in Negombo, the architect is contract administrator. Practical completion is claimed. On inspection the architect finds that the two-hour fire-rated doors to the staircase have been replaced with ordinary flush doors, the contractor has moved the ground-floor slab spacer centres from 1.0 m to 1.8 m without the structural engineer's approval, and the external render shows hollow patches over roughly 10 m². The structural engineer is overseas for three weeks. The client's bank will release the final 20 per cent of a LKR 240 million loan only against the architect's certificate of practical completion, and the tenant has already moved furniture in. The contractor is an old friend of the client and has asked the architect to "sign first, fix later - it's just paperwork between friends". The architect's professional indemnity cover is a claims-made policy renewed each April.
1. Can the architect issue the certificate of practical completion? Answer against the definition of practical completion, not against the client's cash flow.
Read the worked answer
No. Practical completion means the works are complete to the standard required by the contract, with only minor defects that do not affect the use, safety or integrity of the building. Test each finding against that standard:
- Fire doors. Substituting a two-hour rated door set with a flush door is not a minor defect. It defeats the compartmentation design, affects the fire certificate, and is a life-safety issue for the tenant already occupying the building.
- Spacer centres. Reducing spacer centres increases the effective depth of reinforcement; increasing them reduces it. Without the structural engineer's check, the slab's capacity is unknown. The architect is not competent to decide the question and cannot assume it is trivial.
- Hollow render. This one probably is minor - 10 m² of render can be cut out and made good - but it is a defect list item, not a reason to withhold completion on its own.
The first two items mean the answer is no. The correct instrument is a written refusal with a schedule of items, not a certificate with a covering note of caveats. A qualified certificate is not a certificate.
It is also worth checking the fire and local authority position: the building is occupied without a certificate of conformity, which exposes the client, not just the contractor.
2. Set out the sequence of written actions the architect should take, and to whom, in the days following the inspection.
Read the worked answer
The sequence matters as much as the content, because the file will be read later by a bank, an insurer or a court.
- Same day: notify the structural engineer in writing, with photographs and the measured spacer centres, requesting a written assessment and a design check. Send it to the firm, not just the individual, since the engineer is overseas and the practice remains responsible.
- Notify the contractor in writing that the works are not accepted as practically complete, list each item, and require a method statement and programme for the fire doors and slab verification before any further inspection.
- Notify the client in writing - separately from the contractor - explaining that certification is withheld, why, and what the bank can be told. Give the client something to send the bank: a dated status report showing the outstanding items, rather than leaving the client to improvise.
- Notify the local authority/fire authority as required by the applicable procedure, since occupancy without conformity is a live issue.
- Tell the insurer if there is any indication of a claim or of third-party reliance on a certificate. Claims-made policies respond according to when the circumstance is notified, not when the work was done.
The letter should avoid adjectives about the contractor. It should describe, measure and require.
3. The client threatens to replace the architect and says the tenant's insurance "covers everything". What are the real risks of signing, and how should the architect respond to the pressure?
Read the worked answer
Signing would create risks that the tenant's insurance does not touch.
- The certificate is a professional statement, not a favour. It represents that the architect has inspected and found the works complete. A false certificate is a conduct matter before the SLIA regardless of whether anything fails.
- Third-party reliance. The bank will lend against it; the tenant will occupy on it; a future purchaser will read it. Liability can extend beyond the client to those who reasonably relied on the certificate.
- Insurance timing. A claims-made policy responds to notification in the year the circumstance is notified. Signing in March and being notified in May across a renewal is exactly how gaps appear, and deliberate misstatement is commonly excluded outright.
- Criminal exposure if there is a fire. The substitution of fire doors is the sort of finding that features in a subsequent inquiry, and the architect's signature will be the first document produced.
Responding to the pressure: stay factual, offer the fastest legitimate route to the money - a written status report the bank can accept, a programme showing the fire doors delivered in two weeks and the engineer's check in three, and an offer to inspect immediately on completion of the items. If the client insists, accept that the appointment may end, and put the reasoning in writing before it does. Losing a fee is recoverable; losing the certificate is not.