VISA, reviewing the contractors' drawings
Construction drawings are the technical documents contractors produce to guide their own operatives on site. They are more detailed and more precise than the design team's PRO drawings: they descend to the individual element, the construction detail, the exact setting-out.
The design team's role at VISA is to check those documents against the contract, not to validate their calculations. Technical responsibility for construction drawings belongs to the contractor and to any consultant it has appointed. A visa implies no check on structural adequacy or regulatory compliance, which belong to the technical control body.
What gets reviewed
- ℹ Construction drawings: formwork and reinforcement drawings for the structure; services layouts and detail drawings for the technical packages; setting-out drawings for the joinery.
- ℹ Product data sheets: manufacturers' data for joinery, thermal resistance and weather performance classification, for mechanical plant, output and efficiency, and for insulation, thermal resistance.
- ℹ Calculations: structural sizing for reinforced concrete and steelwork, smoke extraction calculations, electrical load assessments.
- ℹ Coordination drawings: drawings bringing together the services of every technical package, confirming that ductwork, cable trays and structure do not conflict in space.
The three possible responses
| Visa without comment | The document conforms to the contract. The contractor may proceed with the corresponding work. This is the target response for a well-prepared document. |
|---|---|
| Visa with comments | The document has points to correct or clarify but may be built subject to those comments being taken up. The contractor must carry them into its next revision. |
| Document refused, to be reissued | The document departs significantly from the contract. The contractor must redo it and resubmit. The work concerned must not proceed before a favourable visa is obtained. |
ℹ The absolute rule: no work without a prior visa It is the hardest rule to enforce on site and the most important. A contractor that builds without a visa risks having to take the work down if the visa is refused, which is practically impossible once the work exists: a cast concrete wall does not come apart. The design team must state the rule at the kick-off meeting, record it in the minutes, and never sign an interim application for work carried out without a visa. That discipline is the best shield against late claims.
VISA and EXE: what separates them
Under a standard loi MOP appointment the contractor, or its consultant, produces the construction drawings and the design team reviews them. But in some regions, and for some public clients, the construction drawings are entrusted to the design team instead, under an EXE duty that replaces VISA. The design team then produces the drawings itself, at a much higher level of responsibility, and is paid accordingly.
DET, directing the works
DET is the construction stage proper. It engages the design team throughout the works, typically through a weekly site meeting at minimum, plus interventions between meetings.
Site minutes: the central instrument
Every site meeting produces minutes, circulated to everyone involved within 48 to 72 hours. The document is contractual: it records the decisions taken, the instructions given to contractors, the state of progress and any warnings.
- ℹ Heading: date, place, those present and those represented. Absentees receive the minutes and are deemed to have read them.
- ℹ Progress of construction drawings and visas: the documents awaiting review, package by package.
- ℹ Progress of the works by package: what has been built, warnings on delay, the forecast for the coming fortnight.
- ℹ Technical matters: architectural instructions, answers to contractors' questions, changes of detail.
- ℹ Financial matters: additional work under consideration, interim applications awaiting validation.
- ℹ Milestones ahead: deliveries expected, key dates, coordination interventions.
Validating the monthly applications
Each month the contractors submit an interim application, a request for payment based on the progress of their work. The design team validates or corrects it against the progress actually observed at the site meetings.
Over-validation: the financial risk nobody counts
Validating an application on the progress a contractor declares, rather than the progress observed, creates an imbalance whose consequences appear at the end of the job: the contractor has been overpaid along the way and no longer has any financial interest in finishing the last items quickly.
An application over-validated by 20 % on a 500,000 € contract means 100,000 € paid before the corresponding work exists. That imbalance turns up in end-of-job disputes without exception.
The rule: validate only what is actually in place and conforming. Where there is doubt, reduce the progress rather than round it up.
Instructions and variations
| Site instruction | The official channel between design team and contractor. Any additional work, any change, any significant requirement must be notified by numbered instruction. The contractor signs it and may record reservations within 30 days. |
|---|---|
| Additional work | Anything not provided for in the original contract. It must be the subject of an instruction before it is built, then valued from the rates in the pricing schedule where one exists, or from a new rate agreed between the parties. |
| Variation | A contractual act signed by both parties formally carrying changes into the contract, additional work or an extension of time. It can only be signed with the client's agreement. |
| Contract tracking sheet | The economist's document recording the original amount, the instructions in progress, the variations signed and the risk provisions. It gives the forecast final cost of each contract at any moment. |
AOR, assistance at handover
AOR is the last stage of the appointment. It covers the period from the pre-handover inspections through to the delivery of the as-built file and the formal handover.
Pre-handover inspections
These are joint inspections organised package by package, in the presence of the design team, the client and the contractor, before formal handover. Their purpose is to establish the schedule of defects, the faults, poor workmanship or missing items to be put right before or after handover.
- ℹ Blocking defects: prevent handover being granted until they are cleared. A fire safety installation that does not work, failed waterproofing, a structural defect.
- ℹ Non-blocking defects: do not prevent handover but are annexed to the certificate. The contractor has a period, usually set in the administrative conditions, to clear them, failing which it is put on notice.
- ℹ Post-works regulatory verification report: issued by the technical control body before handover. On public-access buildings of the first four categories it governs the safety commission's favourable opinion.
Granting handover
Handover is the act by which the client declares that it accepts the works, with or without defects. It is granted in writing, by a handover certificate signed by the client. It is what starts the warranty periods running.
| Warranty of perfect completion, one year | Covers defects of any nature appearing in the year following handover, other than damage from normal wear or use. |
|---|---|
| Warranty of proper functioning, two years | Covers the elements that can be separated from the building: joinery, mechanical plant, floor and wall finishes. |
| Ten-year structural warranty | Covers defects that compromise the soundness of the building or render it unfit for its purpose. Engages the design team's liability jointly with the contractors. |
| Damage insurance | Taken out by the client before the site opens. Allows rapid indemnity for structural damage, without waiting for liability to be established. |
The as-built file
The as-built file is handed to the client at handover. It gathers everything needed to operate, service and maintain the building. Its quality follows directly from the quality of the construction drawings produced during the works.
- ℹ Record drawings: as-built drawings reflecting the real state of the building at handover, buried services and site changes included.
- ℹ Equipment data sheets: documentation for the plant installed, mechanical, electrical, lifts, with references, ratings and commissioning settings.
- ℹ Maintenance instructions: servicing requirements by item, frequency of intervention, maintenance contracts to be put in place.
- ℹ Later intervention file: produced by the health and safety coordinator. Describes the permanent safety provisions for future maintenance work on the building.
The final account
The final account is the definitive financial settlement of each works contract. It brings together the original contract amount, the signed variations, the valued instructions and any liquidated damages. The contractor's signature closes the contract definitively: the amounts can no longer be contested afterwards.
Drafting it rigorously is the client's last financial protection. A final account signed without thorough checking can leave the client with no recourse against a contractor.
ℹ Quostra, the construction economist on demand Cost estimates, pricing schedules, developer appraisals, summary notes. The deliverables that take you days today, taken on by a dedicated economist. You have better things to do. Submit your project and an economist takes over. → quostra.com
Sources: Léonard Hamburger, Maître d'œuvre Bâtiment, 3rd ed., Eyrolles, 2016 · Order of 21 December 1993 setting out the technical arrangements for the elements of a design team appointment.