A condo board was about to hold back the final payment on a corridor repaint — the 140-item deficiency list came down to one sentence nobody had written before the job started
A condo board asked me last month to walk a corridor repaint before they paid the final invoice. The contractor said the job was finished. The property manager had a list of 140 items, the contractor said most of them were not defects, and the two sides had stopped returning calls. I walked all eight floors with both of them. The paint work was mostly fine. What was missing was an agreement, made before anyone painted, about how the finished work would be judged. This post covers how to walk a finished repaint, what belongs on the list, and how to hold money fairly. For condo boards and property managers, not homeowners.
1. Decide how the work will be judged before anyone paints
The argument I walked into was about light. The property manager had walked the corridors with a flashlight held flat against the wall. Light from that angle shows every roller mark and filled nail hole on any wall in any building. The contractor’s answer was that nobody looks at a corridor that way. They were both partly right, and neither had it in writing.
The fair test is the wall as residents see it: normal corridor lighting, standing about the width of the corridor away, looking straight at it. If you can see it from there, it is a deficiency. If you can only find it with a flashlight at a low angle, it usually is not, unless the spec called for a higher finish. That sentence belongs in the scope of work before the job is tendered.
What to look at: Find the line in your contract that says how the finished work will be inspected. If there is no such line, add one before the next job starts, not after it ends.
2. Walk each floor when it is done, not the whole building at the end
Eight floors walked in one afternoon at the end produced a list nobody could act on quickly. The crew had moved to another job, the leftover paint was back at the shop, and the touch-ups on the second floor were going to be done six weeks after the walls around them. Late touch-ups are the ones that show, because fresh paint next to paint that has cured for weeks rarely looks the same.
The better rhythm is a short walk on each floor within a day or two of the crew finishing it, with the contractor’s foreman, one list per floor, signed by both. The fixes happen while the crew is still in the building with the same batch of paint.
What to look at: Ask your contractor to tell you when each floor is ready, and put one name from the board or management on every walk.
3. What belongs on the list, and what does not
The real deficiencies are easy to agree on once you name them. Missed spots where the old colour shows. Cut lines that wander at the ceiling or along the trim. Drips and runs. Patches showing through the new paint. Paint on things that should not have any: door hardware, hinges, carpet edges, fire alarm pull stations and sprinkler heads. A sprinkler head with paint on it has to be replaced, so that one goes at the top of the list.
Some items are not defects. An even roller texture is what a rolled wall looks like. A colour that reads differently under new lights is not a painting fault. And damage that was there before and was never in the scope, like a dented steel door frame, is a change order, not a deficiency.
What to look at: Sort your list into three columns: fix now, change order, and not a defect. Most of the arguments end once the third column exists.
4. Hold the money that matches the list
In Ontario, the Construction Act already has the owner hold back 10% of each payment until the lien period runs out. That holdback protects against liens. It is not a deficiency fund. The board I worked with was holding the entire final payment, the 10% plus the rest, over what turned out to be about thirty real items. That is what stopped the contractor from coming back.
A common, fairer approach is to price the open items and hold about twice that amount on top of the statutory holdback, then release it as each floor is signed off. Your property manager or lawyer can confirm the holdback timing for your contract.
What to look at: When the final invoice arrives, check that the amount being held is tied to a dated, priced list, not to a general feeling that the job is not quite done.
5. Collect the leftover paint and the paperwork before you sign
Before the last signature, get labelled leftover paint for every colour, with the product, colour code, sheen and the floors it went on. Get the colour schedule and any written warranty the contract promised. That is what lets the next scuff be touched up so it matches instead of turning into a guess.
What to look at: Open the paint storage room after the job. Every can should say what is in it and where it went.
What to do if you’re seeing any of this
If a repaint is wrapping up this fall and the sign-off is turning into an argument, a walk with the scope in hand usually settles it in an afternoon. I walk finished and in-progress painting work for condominium corporations and property managers across Ottawa — Kanata, Nepean, Barrhaven, Orleans, Stittsville and Westboro — and I write the inspection and sign-off terms into every scope I price. Call 613.325.3011 or email yasir@heims.ca.
— Yasir, HEIMS Construction
HEIMS Construction is an Ottawa-based commercial painting and drywall contractor serving condominium corporations, property managers and institutional clients across the Ottawa area. Fully licensed and insured, with $5M commercial general liability coverage.