Track deficiencies in one register where every item carries a location, a date observed, a responsible trade, photographic evidence, a status and a closing date. AI can create and update entries from site notes and photographs and chase the open ones; what it must not touch is the money — holdback, set-off and warranty decisions are legal calls.
Key takeaways
Every job produces a deficiency list, and most of them die the same way: a spreadsheet that was current at handover, an email thread that contradicts it, and photographs on three phones. Six months later nobody can say when an item was first raised, who was told, or whether it was fixed.
The fix is to treat the list as a register rather than a document. One item per row, and each row carries eight fields: unique reference, location, description, date first observed, who observed it, responsible party, evidence, and status with a date on every status change. AI can populate and maintain that from ordinary site material — a walkthrough note, a photograph, an email — and can chase the open items on a schedule. It should not decide what an item is worth.
Deficiency disputes turn on chronology far more than on the defect itself. When was it first visible, when was it reported, when was the trade given access, what was said in response. Our sister firm sets out how the limitation clock runs on construction deficiency claims, including where a defect was hidden, and separately what is required when documenting contractor deficiencies before you sue. Both point the same way: an undated list is nearly worthless, and a dated one with photographs is hard to argue with.
This is the single strongest argument for automating the capture step. A register where items are created from a timestamped photograph and a dictated sentence has accurate dates because nobody had to type them.
Structuring. Turning “unit 304, second bedroom, drywall crack above the window, third time” into a typed entry with a location, a trade and a reference.
De-duplicating. Matching today’s observation to an item raised three weeks ago in the same location, so the register does not double-count — and so a recurring item is visible as recurring.
Routing. Grouping open items by responsible trade and drafting the notification for each, with photographs attached.
Chasing. Escalating on the schedule you set, and reporting what is open past its date. This is the function that decides whether a register stays alive after handover.
Reporting. Producing the close-out summary: items raised, closed, open, by trade and by area, with the evidence attached.
The eight fields, and the two that get skipped
Reference · location · description · date observed · observer · responsible party · evidence · status with date.
The two that get skipped are responsible party and status date. Without the first, the register cannot be routed and becomes a reading exercise. Without the second, you can say an item is closed but not when — which is the fact you will need.
Add a ninth field if you can: agreed or disputed. Recording that the trade disputes an item is more useful than arguing it into the list.
At some point the register meets the payment application, and this is where software should stop and people should start. In Ontario the statutory holdback is a creature of the Construction Act, and there are limits on using it as leverage: our sister firm answers whether an owner can deduct the cost of deficient work from the holdback, explains what owners must withhold as holdback, and addresses withholding payment for deficient work more generally. Related and often decisive is substantial performance under the Construction Act, which affects when holdback can be released and when lien periods begin.
The practical rule for anyone configuring a system: a deficiency register may report a valuation, and a person must approve any decision to withhold. Do not build a workflow where a status change in a project tool automatically changes what gets paid.
For a new home, the deficiency conversation runs through the statutory warranty as well as the contract. Tarion publishes post-possession coverage, which is structured as one, two and seven year coverage with maximum coverage limits that depend on the date of the purchase agreement, and sets out the process for making and resolving warranty claims. Builders and vendors of new homes are separately licensed: the Home Construction Regulatory Authority licenses and regulates new home builders and sellers in Ontario and publishes the Ontario Builder Directory.
Two consequences for your register. First, warranty forms have submission windows, so a register that tracks items without tracking the applicable warranty window is only doing half the job. Second, where a builder will not act, the route is the warranty process rather than persistence — there is a plain-language guide to what to do when a contractor will not honour a warranty.
On commercial work the register interacts with certification, holdback release and the contract’s own defects provisions; on residential work it interacts with consumer protection and statutory warranty. Our sister firm compares commercial and residential construction deficiency claims. Configure the register the same way in both cases — the fields do not change — but do not assume the escalation path is the same.
A builder finishing a 22-unit low-rise ran deficiencies through email for the first four units and switched to a register for the rest.
Capture was a phone: photograph, then a spoken sentence naming the unit, room, element and problem. Entries were created automatically with the photograph attached and the timestamp preserved, and the de-duplication step flagged when the same location came up twice. Each evening the open items were grouped by trade and a notification drafted for each trade with its own items only.
The difference at close-out was not the number of deficiencies — it was that the builder could state, per unit, how many items were raised, when each was closed, and which three remained open with the reason. The final payment conversation took one meeting. The first four units, tracked by email, took three.
No. Whether work meets the contract, the specification and the applicable code is a judgment for a qualified person, and on a contested item it may be an expert’s judgment. What software does is make sure the item is recorded, routed and not forgotten.
It can describe what is visible and draft an entry, which speeds up capture. Treat the draft as a note requiring confirmation, and never let an automatically generated description become the formal description of a disputed item without someone reading it.
Longer than the job. Warranty periods and limitation clocks both run past completion, and the register is the evidence. Keep it in the same retention regime as your other business records — the Income Tax Act generally requires business records to be retained for six years from the end of the last taxation year to which they relate, which is a sensible floor rather than a ceiling here.
One person, named, usually the site lead during construction and the warranty or service contact afterwards. Registers with shared ownership drift; registers with no owner after handover die within a month.
A 30-minute call is enough to tell you whether AI pays for itself here.
