A step-by-step recovery plan for developers dealing with a failed S104 or S38 adoption inspection, from rejection report to re-submission.
Step 1: Get the rejection report interpreted properly
Rejection reports are written in authority language and often mix critical structural defects with minor cosmetic items. The first job is to separate what genuinely blocks adoption from what can be closed out quickly, so the programme and the cost are both realistic.
Step 2: Price the works as a single package
Benching repairs, concrete surrounds, frame and cover replacement, pipe and joint repairs and chamber reconstruction are all specialist items. Pricing them together with one contractor avoids interface disputes and repeat mobilisation costs.
Step 3: Repair, re-survey, re-submit
Complete the remedials to the applicable authority standard, re-survey the affected network so the evidence pack is clean, then re-submit with the defect schedule closed out item by item. Sites we recover this way typically pass re-inspection first time.
Step 4: Protect the next phase
Use the rejection report as a learning tool for the phases still under construction. A single early inspection on the next phase usually costs less than the retention held on the phase that failed.