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DLP meaning

What does DLP mean?
DLP (defects liability period) is the period after practical completion (or takeover) in a construction contract when the contractor must return to site to make good notified defects at its own cost. It is a contractual, not statutory, concept, and its length is agreed in the contract (commonly 6–12 months, sometimes longer for complex works or specific systems). Terminology varies but the effect is broadly consistent across the UK and Ireland: JCT (England & Wales/Northern Ireland) and SBCC (Scotland) use Rectification Period; NEC3/NEC4 use the Defects Date and a Defect Correction Period; Irish RIAI forms refer to the defects liability period and the Public Works Contracts to the Defects Period. During the DLP the contract administrator or project manager may issue instructions or defect notices; the contractor must remedy within the stated timescales, failing which the employer may engage others and recover the cost. Half of the retention is often released at practical completion and the balance on expiry of the DLP or on issue of the certificate of making good, depending on the form. The DLP does not limit or replace the contractor’s continuing liability for defective work discovered later (latent defects) and does not extend statutory limitation periods.
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View the related Practice Notes about DLP

PRACTICE NOTES
Construction contracts glossary—D: design and build, delay, defects, payment notices, dispute processes, dutyholders

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z D&B See Design and build beneath. DBO See Design, build and operate beneath. Date for completion/completion date Means the date stated therein in the building contract (typically within the contract particulars/contract data) by which the contractor must finish the works—ie the point by which practical completion is to be achieved (see Practice Note: What is practical completion?). This completion date may change over the course of the project, for instance where the contractor receives an extension of time. Should the works not be completed by the completion date, the contractor is liable to the employer for liquidated damages (where the contract so provides) or, failing that, general damages for delay in completion (arising from breach of contract thereunder). Date for possession The date set out in the building contract on which the employer gives...

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PRACTICE NOTES
Defects Liability and Rectification: Definitions, Procedures, Rights and Remedies under JCT, NEC and FIDIC, with Case Law and Limitation Periods

On construction projects, flaws commonly emerge within the works. Under the majority of building contracts, the contractor must return to site to make good any defects that arise or are identified within a set period after practical completion of the works, and to do so on site. In the industry, this window is usually called the defects liability period (DLP), though JCT contracts call it the rectification period, NEC uses the term defects date, and FIDIC refers to the defects notification period. What is a defect? As the DLP deals with remedying ‘defects’, it is important to consider the scope of that term and to understand what it is taken to cover. ‘Defect’ is not a technical term of art and there is no single ‘standard’ definition of what amounts to a defect in building works. In general terms, however, a defect is work that does not achieve the standard or a specification required by the building contract. This may result from faults in workmanship, materials or design,...

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PRACTICE NOTES
Archived summary: Employee Data Processing and Workplace Monitoring under EU/UK GDPR—Article 29 Working Party Opinion 2/2017 Guidance for UK Employment Lawyers

ARCHIVED: This Practice Note has been archived and is not maintained. It provides an overview of Opinion 2/2017 from the Article 29 Data Protection Work Party (called in this Practice Note the Article 29 Opinion), addressing the impact of Regulation (EU) 2016/679, EU GDPR on processing employee data within the employment relationship and on the equilibrium between employers’ legitimate interests and employees’ reasonable privacy expectations in this context. Although grounded in Directive 95/46/EC, the Data Protection Directive, the Article 29 Opinion anticipated duties arising under Regulation (EU) 2016/679, EU GDPR, which, when the Article 29 Opinion appeared, had yet to take effect and was not in force at that time. From IP completion day (11 pm on 31 December 2020), Regulation (EU) 2016/679, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) became retained EU law (see Practice Note: Retained EU law in employment [Archived]) and is referred to as UK GDPR. Alongside the provisions of the Data Protection Act 2018 concerning general personal data processing, the Information Commissioner’s powers, and sanctions...

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