What goes into a construction handover pack?
Oracle's Aconex documentation describes O&M manuals as usually including drawings, manuals, specifications, reports and warranties, across disciplines such as architectural, electrical, fire, hydraulic and mechanical. A full handover pack for a commercial building usually adds the items the client and the building surveyor or certifier need to operate and occupy it. Your specification and head contract set the actual list, so start there. Add anything the client's facilities manager has asked for, such as a particular asset register format, at the same time.
- Operation and maintenance manuals for installed plant and systems.
- Product and installation warranties, with start dates.
- As-built drawings reflecting the final revisions.
- Test, commissioning and inspection reports.
- Certificates and statements from practitioners and installers.
- Asset lists and maintenance schedules where the client requires them.
Why do handover documents run late?
Several causes are predictable. Documents are requested at the end, after the trade has demobilised and the person who knows the installation has moved to another site. Warranties need details such as serial numbers and installation dates that nobody recorded at the time. Manuals arrive as generic product brochures rather than documents for the installed equipment. Formats vary from scanned paper to links that expire. Each problem is cheaper to solve while the trade is still on site, which is the case for collecting progressively.
Track progress as the share of register lines received and checked, by trade, each month. A trade that is behind while still on site can be chased at the next coordination meeting; one that has already left needs phone calls, emails and sometimes a site visit to recover the same information.
How do you build a handover register at award?
Aconex's guidance notes that in most cases handover documents will have been specified in the original supplier contracts, and that collection can start at any point during the project. Use that. When each subcontract is let, read the specification and subcontract for handover requirements and create a register line for every document: trade, document type, the clause that requires it, the format required, the due date and the person responsible on the subcontractor's side. Set due dates ahead of practical completion, staged by trade, so the final weeks are left for checking.
Which certificates can hold up occupation?
In Victoria, the Building and Plumbing Commission says the building permit states whether an occupancy permit or a certificate of final inspection is needed on completion, that occupying a building before a required occupancy permit is issued is an offence under the Building Act 1993, and that the building surveyor may request certificates or statements from practitioners before issuing it. In NSW, Service NSW says you need an occupation certificate to occupy or use a new building, issued by the council or a private certifier. Ask your building surveyor or certifier early for the list of certificates they will want, and add each to the register.
How do you check documents as they arrive?
Check each document against the register line and the approved submittal before marking it received. A wrong or generic document accepted in month ten becomes a gap discovered at handover, when the supplier may no longer respond. Return anything that fails with a short note of what is missing and a new due date, keep the rejected version so the history is clear, and record who did the check and on what date.
- It is for this project and this building, not a template from another job.
- Product, model and serial numbers match the approved submittal and what was installed.
- Warranty start dates, terms and the warrantor's details are complete.
- Certificates are signed by the right practitioner and reference the correct work.
- The file is legible, searchable and in the format the client specified.
Where can software help with handover documents?
Software can read the specification and subcontracts to draft the register, classify incoming documents by trade and type, compare warranty details against approved submittals, flag generic or mismatched documents, chase overdue items and build an index of the final pack by trade and location. It cannot certify that work complies, accept a document on the client's behalf or decide whether a substitute product is acceptable. Those decisions stay with the project team, the consultants and the building surveyor or certifier.