Project Stages: Practical Completion under pressure, fire-safety items, and LADs

You are the Contract Administrator and Lead Designer on a £7 million hospitality refurbishment of a 64-bedroom hotel under a JCT Standard Building Contract 2024 (SBC/Q). The contract sum is fixed, the date for completion was 22 January 2027, and Liquidated Damages are set at £8,500 per week. The contractor served a notice of Practical Completion six weeks after the contractual date for completion. You inspected the works and issued a Non-Completion Certificate under clause 2.31 at the date the contractor failed to complete. The client is now claiming Liquidated and Ascertained Damages of £51,000 to date and is refusing to allow you to certify Practical Completion until twenty-five listed snagging items are closed out. Two of the twenty-five items are fire-safety related. The first is an unsealed compartment penetration on the second floor where a new soil pipe passes through a 60-minute fire-rated compartment wall and has not been fire-stopped. The second is a missing piece of ironmongery on a final exit door from the kitchen lobby, where the panic device has not been fitted and the door cannot currently be opened from the inside without a key. The remaining twenty-three items are commercial and finish issues: chipped skirtings, two missing electrical face plates, paint touch-ups, a damaged tile in a corridor, two loose handrail brackets, and similar items. The contractor's project manager has written to you arguing forcefully that Practical Completion should be certified now, with the items reduced to a defects schedule under clause 2.38, on the basis that the works are substantially complete and the hotel can open for booking. The client argues that no part of the building should be handed over until every item is resolved. Both parties have asked for your decision in writing by the end of the week.