Generally, this contractual provision gives the contractor the obligation but also the right to make good at his own cost defects which appear in the defects liability period. One effect of this is that if the employer does not give the contractor due timely notice to return and make good defects, the amount which the employer can recover from the contractor for putting right such defects is limited to the cost at which the original contractor could have done the work and not the price of a new contractor on a “learning curve”.
Note that the defects liability period is not an exclusion clause – so defects which appear after the defects liability period are still breaches to be remedied by the contractor in the absence of a binding and conclusive final certificate which removes further responsibility for defects.
