FIDIC glossary · Procedures
Tests on Completion
Tests on Completion
In short
Tests before taking-over confirming the Works meet the requirements (Clause 9).
What is a Tests on Completion?
Tests on Completion are the tests the Contractor must carry out and pass before the Works can be taken over. Without them no Taking-Over Certificate is issued — and so neither the transfer of risk nor the end of delay damages is triggered.
Under the 2017 editions the sequence has three stages: pre-commissioning tests, commissioning tests, and then a trial operation. What each actually involves is set in the Employer's Requirements or the Specification — and that is where most of the trouble hides.
The practical rule: read the testing section at tender stage, not a month before handover. Acceptance criteria, who supplies feedstock and utilities for the tests, what counts as a pass, how many repeats are allowed — all of it drives cost and risk.
If a test is failed the Contractor may repeat it. If it fails again the Employer has a choice: reject the Works, accept them with a reduction in the Contract Price, or require further testing. An Employer that fails to carry out testing on time works in the Contractor's favour — the tests may be deemed passed.
Do not confuse these with Tests after Completion, which are run after taking-over and check operating performance.
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.