ABSTRACT
The Design and Build (DB) contract provides for an employer's agent to be engaged by the employer. It is the employer's agent who is responsible for carrying out the inspection and preparing a list of defects after the end of the rectification period. The employer should exercise the right to engage others, and the architect should then make an appropriate deduction from the contract sum of the whole cost, including professional fees, involved in getting the defects made good. The rectification period was introduced to give the contractor the right to return to site and make good any defects notified at the end of the period. After giving notice to the employer, the contractor may be able to accept the employer's actions as a repudiatory breach enabling the contractor to accept the repudiation and bring the contractor's obligations to an end.
