Defects Liability and Retention Release Agent
The Defects Liability and Retention Release Agent tracks every project after practical completion: defect lists, defects liability and latent defects periods, retention held, guarantee expiry dates and the requirements for works and final completion. It reminds the right people ahead of each milestone and prepares the draft certificates, release letters and final account supporting pack, so money and guarantees are released when the contract says they should be.
Ideal forQuantity surveyors
The difference
From 3-4 hours per project each month to about 30 minutes
Your team closes out projects cleanly while moving on to new work, and no release date or guarantee expiry slips past unnoticed.
Done by hand
3-4 hours per project each month
With the Vanine agent
About 30 minutes
Time returned to your team
85%
Indicative figures. We measure your own baseline in the first fortnight so the numbers you see are yours.
Money released when it is due
Retention and guarantees often sit unreleased for months after they fall due simply because no one tracked the date. Contractors get paid on time and employers avoid disputes over late release.
No expired security by accident
A performance guarantee that lapses before defects are corrected leaves the employer exposed. The agent warns well before expiry so extensions or replacement security can be arranged.
Defects closed, not forgotten
Defect lists passed between the principal agent, contractor and subcontractors are easy to lose track of. Each item is tracked to correction and sign-off with photo evidence.
Capabilities
Close out defects and release retention and guarantees on time.
Built for principal agents, project managers, quantity surveyors and contractors' commercial and contracts managers closing out South African building and civil projects under JBCC, NEC, GCC 2015 and FIDIC contracts.
Close-out date register
Records practical, works and final completion dates, defects liability and latent defects periods and retention and guarantee release triggers for every contract.
Defect list tracking
Manages snag and defect lists by area and trade, with responsible subcontractor, due date, photos and status through to correction and inspection.
Retention and guarantee schedule
Tracks retention held, reductions due at completion milestones, and each guarantee's value, issuer and expiry date against the contract terms.
Milestone reminders
Sends reminders to the principal agent, contractor and employer ahead of inspections, the end of the defects liability period and guarantee expiry.
Draft certificates and letters
Prepares draft completion certificates, retention release payment certificates and guarantee return letters in the form the contract requires.
Final completion pack
Checks that as-built drawings, operation and maintenance manuals, warranties, compliance certificates and the final account are in place before final completion.
How it works
From your systems to a result you sign off
The principal agent, engineer or project manager inspects the works and issues the completion and payment certificates. Guarantees are returned only on your authorised approval.
Connect the places your contract records already live.
Contract data, completion certificates, defect lists, payment certificates and guarantee documents from Procore, Aconex, Candy, WinQS or SharePoint. Already use something else? We connect that too.
- OpenAI Frontier
- Your own AI platform or models
- Microsoft 365 (Teams, SharePoint, Outlook, Excel)
- Copilot Studio
- Procore and Aconex
- Candy and WinQS final accounts
- Outlook calendar reminders
Runs daily in the background to check dates, or on request in Teams or OpenAI Frontier.
An updated close-out register in Excel, Outlook reminders, and draft certificates and release letters in Word, filed in the project's SharePoint site.
Step by step
- 01
Practical completion is certified and the agent sets up the project's close-out register.
- 02
It tracks defect correction, defects liability periods, retention and guarantee dates daily.
- 03
It sends reminders ahead of inspections, release dates and guarantee expiry.
- 04
It prepares draft certificates, release letters and the final completion checklist.
- 05
The principal agent or engineer inspects, reviews and signs the certificates.
- 06
Retention is paid and guarantees are returned through your normal approval process.
Deployment
Runs inside the tools your team already uses
The same agent and the same cited output, delivered three ways: through the AI assistant you have rolled out, on a model you host yourself, or inside your own software.
In the frontier assistant you already pay for
We publish the agent as an MCP server. Add it as a connector and your team calls it from the chat they use every day, with no new tool to learn.
"Track defects liability periods"
- projects
- 14 in DLP
- window
- 90 days
On a model you host yourself
Run the agent on open-weight models in your data centre or private cloud. Your contract records never leave your network, which keeps POPIA and data residency straightforward.
- Llama
- Mistral
- Ollama
- or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint
Inside your own software
Trigger a run from your own workflows, and push the finished output into your ERP, GRC or reporting systems. We build the integration with your team.
- REST API
- Webhooks
- Batch jobs
- Embeddable review panel
Governed the same way, every route
Whichever way your team reaches the agent, identity, permissions and audit stay with your existing controls.
- Single sign-on through Entra ID, Okta or Google Workspace
- Reads only the documents each user is already allowed to open
- Every tool call written to an audit log you can export
How we deliver it
One agent, three ways to hold it
Start where your team already works, then take it as far into your systems as the value justifies.
DATA SECURITY & PRIVACY
Your contract records stay yours.
The agent runs inside your tenancy, reads only what each task needs, and never trains on your contract records. Every step is logged so your auditors can see exactly what it touched.
Built for regulated work.
+YOUR CONTRACT RECORDS NEVER LEAVE YOUR ENVIRONMENT
More agents
More agents we build for South African enterprises
Each one is built on the same foundation: your documents, your rules, and your people signing off.
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