FIDIC glossary · Documents
Taking-Over Certificate
Taking-Over Certificate
In short
Confirms the Works are complete and taken over by the Employer; starts the Defects Notification Period (Clause 10).
What is a Taking-Over Certificate?
A Taking-Over Certificate is the certificate the Engineer issues when the Works, or an agreed Section of them, are complete in accordance with the Contract and have passed the Tests on Completion. It is not a formality: it flips several contractual regimes at once.
From the date stated in the certificate, the risk of loss of the Works passes to the Employer, the insurance obligation changes hands, delay damages stop accruing, and the Defects Notification Period (DNP) starts to run. That is why disputes are rarely about whether taking-over happened and almost always about the date — every day of disagreement is money.
The Employer can also take the Works into use without a certificate, in which case FIDIC treats taking-over as having occurred in fact (deemed taking-over). A contractor should record that moment in writing: occupation without a fixed taking-over date is a classic way to lose an argument about delay.
Do not confuse it with the Performance Certificate, which is issued at the end of the DNP and confirms that all obligations, including remedying defects, have been discharged.
Where it sits in the contract
Related terms
Need this read against your own contract?
This explains how the mechanism works in the standard form. How it works in your contract, after the Particular Conditions, is a separate question.
Talk to an expert →A reference explanation of the FIDIC standard conditions. Not legal advice, and not a reproduction of the FIDIC books.