The O&M handover checklist for M&E contractors
The O&M manual is often the last thing holding up close-out. Most of the delay comes from documents nobody asked for early enough. Use this checklist from contract award to handover, so the manual comes together as the job goes, not in the last fortnight.
At contract award
- Find the O&M requirements in the spec or employer's requirements: format (PDF, online, both), structure, number of copies, and who signs it off.
- Check when retention and practical completion depend on handover information, and note the date.
- Agree who owns the manual on your side (one named person) and who reviews it on the client's side.
- Ask whether the client's FM team or a CAFM system needs a particular asset list format.
- If the building is a higher-risk building, check what's needed for the golden thread of information under the Building Safety Act.
When you place orders
- Send each supplier a document request with the order (see the template), not at the end of the job.
- Ask for: the O&M or installation manual, data sheet, declaration of performance or conformity where relevant, warranty terms, spares list and maintenance schedule.
- Record the make, model and quantity of every item you install. This becomes your asset register.
During installation
- Save documents in one shared place as they arrive, named by system and product.
- Collect commissioning, test and inspection certificates as each system is done (for example electrical installation certificates, fire alarm commissioning certificates, ventilation flow readings, BMS points lists).
- Note serial numbers and locations as kit goes in. They're much harder to collect later.
- Keep marked-up drawings current so the as-builts aren't a guess.
Four weeks before handover
- Chase every missing document. List what's still outstanding and who it's from.
- Draft the manual structure: system descriptions, asset register, maintenance schedules, certificates, drawings, contacts.
- Send a draft to the client or main contractor for comments early, not on the last day.
- Confirm what goes into the CDM health and safety file and who's collating it.
At handover
- Final certificates and as-built drawings in.
- Manual issued in the agreed format, with a record of who received it and when.
- Training given to the client's FM team, and recorded.
- Warranty start dates and service intervals made clear.
- Building Regulations energy information (where required) handed to the owner.
After handover
- Keep the manual up to date when kit is replaced or the system changes.
- Make sure the client can find a data sheet in a year's time without ringing you.
Handover Works puts all of this in one online manual your client opens with a QR scan. Build and preview your first handover free, no card needed. You only pay when you publish.