Handover report template

A handover report is the client's evidence of what they took over. It records the condition of the building on the day, the work still outstanding, and every key, reading and document that changed hands, with a date on all of it.

The client will not read it on the day. They will read it in month four, when a radiator is cold, the warranty for the boiler is nowhere to be found and somebody is claiming the scratch on the kitchen worktop was there at handover.

The front page answers five questions in ten seconds

The defects period dates are the field that saves the most time later. When something fails in month eleven, the first question anyone asks is whether it is still covered, and the answer should already be printed on page one.

Record condition by area, because that is how the argument arrives

Nobody disputes the building as a whole. They dispute one room, one surface, one appliance. Structure the body of the report by area, in the order you walked it, and give each area the same four lines.

Photograph every area, including the ones with nothing wrong. A clean room on handover day is the frame that answers "that was already there" three months later. A dated wide shot from the doorway, and one of each finished surface that is easy to damage, is enough.

Snags carry over with their original numbers

If a snag list exists, the handover report does not rewrite it. It lists the items still open, with their original refs, the trade that owns each one and the date it is due.

Keeping the refs is what makes this work. The contractor's schedule, the client's emails and the re-inspection all point at ref 12, and renumbering for the handover breaks every one of those references at once.

Items closed before the walk do not need to appear. Items closed during the walk do: mark them closed with the date and a photo, because otherwise they look like they were missed.

Meter readings go in as photographs, not as typed numbers

A typed reading can be mistyped. A photo of the dial with the time on it cannot be argued with, and the supplier's first question on a disputed bill is what the reading was on the changeover date.

Keys and access devices get counted, not described

List every key, fob, card, remote and code that changed hands, with a count. "Keys handed over" tells nobody anything when one is missing next spring.

Do not write alarm codes or passwords into the report. Record that they were set or handed over, and by whom.

Documents and demonstrations close the gap between handing over and understanding

Most handover packs list what was supplied. The useful version also records what the client was shown how to use, because the first service call is very often a client who was never shown how the heating controls work.

"To follow" is a legitimate entry, and better than leaving the document off the list. It turns a missing certificate into an open item with a date on it, instead of something the client discovers when they try to sell the house.

Say how to report a defect, on the last page

Finish the report with three lines the client will actually use: who to contact about a defect, how to send it, and what to include. A photo, the room, the date it was noticed. That is the same information the report itself is built on, so a defect reported in the same shape as the handover record can be checked against it in a minute.

Write it on the walk, not afterwards

The handover walk is usually the last time the client, the contractor and the person writing the report are in the building together. Everything recorded while all three are standing in the room is agreed. Everything written up the next day is somebody's recollection.

Sitewise is built for the capture side of this, on iPhone and iPad. Each area becomes a set of photos with a typed or dictated note attached (voice notes transcribe on the phone), a sketch when an arrow on the image explains more than a sentence, and a time stamp on every capture, plus a GPS pin when location is on. It works with no signal and syncs later, and the visit exports as a PDF or DOCX you can send to the client before everyone leaves. It does not hold the O&M manuals, collect signatures, track the defects period or issue work to the contractor, and it does not run on Android or in a browser.

If the snag list feeding this report is still being written, the snag list template has the columns and the wording. For a residential sale, where the buyer rather than a client is taking over, the final walkthrough checklist covers the hour before closing.