The Service

Defect Management &
Handover Assurance.

Not a consultant's hours. This is a defined service with a defined output: a clean, documented, on-time handover. Group 4 is engaged by developers, head contractors, project directors and building managers who cannot afford close-out to go wrong.

A finished balcony threshold and glass balustrade junction — the kind of close-out detail that decides waterproofing
Who engages Group 4

Developers

Protecting settlement dates and purchaser confidence. The register is the evidence the building is ready.

Head contractors

Getting off the project clean, with defects closed inside the programme instead of litigated after it.

Building & facility managers

Inheriting an asset with a documented close-out, not a folder of loose ends and a defect liability fight.

The regime

Five stages. One source of truth.

[Steps below are the working frame, refined to Louis's exact method after the discovery call.]

STAGE 01

Inspect

Staged, methodical inspections planned to the programme — defects found early, when they're cheap.

STAGE 02

Capture & cost-code

Every defect logged once: located, photographed, priced and cost-coded. Exposure visible from day one.

STAGE 03

Track & hold

Assigned to trades with dates; reinspection confirms rectification. Nothing closes on a say-so.

STAGE 04

Report

Close-out velocity, exposure by trade, readiness for PC — at a cadence you run the project by.

STAGE 05

Close out & sign off

The documented pack — the independent evidence your certifier and client can rely on.

What you receive

Deliverables, not activity.

  • The cost-coded defect register, live throughout and yours at close-out.
  • Inspection records: staged, time-stamped, photographic.
  • Progress reporting: velocity, exposure and readiness at an agreed cadence.
  • The sign-off pack, the documented evidence of a clean handover.

Delivered through the Group 4 method — the cost-coded register and reporting built from twenty years of close-outs, run in your project's platform or on Group 4's own. See it live with sample data →

Engagement models

Engaged the way the project needs.

MODEL A

Assurance

Independent oversight of an existing close-out: inspections, register audit and reporting that tells the client the truth about readiness.

MODEL B

Advisory

Setting up the close-out regime early, with protocols, register structure and cadence, so the delivery team runs it right from the start.

MODEL C

Embedded

Group 4 runs defect management end-to-end as part of the project team, through PC, settlement and the defect liability period.

Specialised engagements: independent expert-witness & dispute support when close-out becomes a claim, and strata & owners-corporation defect support for buildings after handover.

How Group 4 fits

Alongside your team,
not on top of it.

Group 4 doesn't replace the people already on your contract. It gives them something they rarely have on close-out: an independent, documented, cost-coded view of where the defects actually stand.

01

Your certifier & superintendent

Formal certification — occupation and practical-completion certificates, statutory declarations — stays with your registered certifier and superintendent. Group 4 hands them the independent evidence to act on with confidence, not a competing authority.

02

Your project manager

The PM runs the whole job. Group 4 does only close-out, full-time, alongside them — so the phase that usually gets squeezed in the final weeks is the one phase being handled properly.

03

Your head contractor & trades

Group 4 is engaged by, and works for, one party's outcome. Accountability isn't hostility: trades that rectify properly get fast reinspections and a clean record. Nothing closes on a say-so.

Placeholder — not for launch Professional indemnity cover, registrations and contractual standing to be confirmed and stated here.

Talk to Louis.

Not ready for a full engagement? Start with the fixed-fee Health Check. Otherwise: a quick call, no obligation. He'll tell you straight if Group 4 can help.