Handovers: Overview

About Handovers

A handover is the point where responsibility for a piece of work passes from one party to the next. The final handover passes the finished building from the contractor to the owner, and with it the risk, the keys, the warranties and every document the owner needs to run the building. Smaller handovers happen throughout the project: one trade hands an area to the next, the shell contractor hands the building to the fit-out contractor, the general contractor hands individual apartments to their buyers.

Every handover has the same three parts. An inspection that establishes the state of the work, with a list of what is still outstanding. A formal record that both sides sign. And a package of information that goes with the work: certificates, manuals, as-built plans, warranties. Missing any one of them causes trouble later, usually when the defects liability period starts and nobody can prove what was outstanding on the day.

Handover is where defect management ends and maintenance begins. The outstanding items are defects. Read more in Defect Management: Overview. The operation afterwards is covered in Maintenance & Repairs: Overview.

Where Handovers Happen

• At completion of the building, from the contractor to the owner and their facility manager.
• At completion of each unit, from the developer to the buyer of an apartment or the tenant of a unit.
• Between trades, when one trade's work is finished and the next trade takes over the area.
• Between contractors, for example from the shell and core contractor to the fit-out contractor.
• Within the contractor's own company, from the construction team to the after-sales or warranty team.

Terminology

Whatever the handover is called in your contract, the record has to show the same things: who handed over what to whom, on which date, in which state, with which outstanding items, and with which documents.

What PlanRadar Covers

PlanRadar covers each of the three parts.

• The inspection. A Handover ticket per area or unit, with a checklist of what is checked at handover. Every outstanding item is a defect ticket, linked to the checklist item it came from, pinned on the plan and assigned to the trade that has to fix it.
• The formal record. The Handover ticket is signed by both parties and locked. Where your company has a fixed handover protocol, the protocol is a project report filled from your own PDF form, with the handover tickets attached, and it cannot be changed once submitted.
• The information package. The certificates, manuals, warranties and as-built plans are stored in Documents in a folder structure the owner recognises. The owner gets access to the project as a watcher, or receives an export of the whole project.

SiteView adds a 360° record of every room on handover day.

What PlanRadar does not decide is whether the work is ready for handover or what counts as a minor item. Those come from your contract. PlanRadar records what was inspected, what was outstanding, who signed and when, and keeps the documents together with the record.

Roles and Workflow

Roles

Subcontractors are free of charge. They see only the tickets assigned to them or their group, and can set Resolved but not Closed. They can upload files into attachment fields that they have edit permission for, which is how their certificates reach the handover ticket. The owner's representative is usually a watcher: they see all tickets of the project and its documents, and change nothing. Read more in User Types.

Workflow

The process runs in four stages: prepare, inspect, sign, close out.

1. Prepare. The project manager creates the Handover form with its checklist, sets up the Documents folders, asks every trade for its documents, and creates one Handover ticket per area.
2. Inspect. The site manager and the owner's representative walk each area. The checklist is filled in, and every outstanding item becomes a defect ticket linked to the checklist item.
3. Sign. Both parties sign the Handover ticket on the tablet, which locks it. Where a handover protocol is required, it is filled as a project report and submitted.
4. Close out. The trades fix the outstanding items. The project manager closes them, completes the document package and gives the owner access or an export.

Each stage is explained in Handovers: Workflows in PlanRadar.

The Example in These Articles

A general contractor hands over a five-storey office building to the owner. The owner's technical project manager inspects each floor with the contractor's site manager, and the owner's facility manager takes over the building services. Before the handover, every trade has to provide its certificates, manuals and as-built plans. Outstanding items found at the inspection have to be fixed within four weeks.

The example uses one Handover ticket per floor and one for the building services, a Defect form for outstanding items, the company's own handover protocol as a project report, and a Documents folder per trade. Where a decision could reasonably be made another way, a short note points out the alternative.

Planning Your Handover Setup

One Handover Ticket per What?

Most building handovers combine the first and the last: area tickets for the building fabric, system tickets for the services. Read more in Import & Update Tickets for creating unit tickets in bulk.

What Goes on the Checklist?

Use a checklist field on the Handover form for the items checked at every handover. A common set:

• All pre-handover defects closed.
• Cleaning done.
• Keys and access cards handed over.
• Meter readings recorded.
• Operating instructions given to the facility staff.
• Certificates and manuals provided.

Keep Enable ticket linking switched on for the checklist field, which is the default, so that an outstanding item is created as a defect ticket directly from the checklist item it belongs to. You can limit the linked tickets to your Defect form. The linked defect is a ticket of its own, with its own assignee and status. Linked tickets in checklists are available on Pro and Enterprise accounts created after February 2022. Read more in Use Linked Tickets in Checklists and Edit Field Properties.

Values that have to be written down, such as meter readings or the number of keys, go into number fields on the form so that they appear in the report.

How Is the Handover Signed?

Signatures, locking and attaching tickets to project reports are available on Pro and Enterprise accounts created after February 2022. Enable Signatures in the form settings, which also enables locking. Read more in Sign a Ticket, Project Reports and Edit Form Settings.

Where the owner wants to formally approve each area through a workflow rather than sign on site, use ticket approvals. Read more in Approvals.

How Is the Document Package Organised?

The owner will look for documents by trade or by system, years after the contractor's team has left. Organise Documents the way the owner will search:

• One folder per trade or system, for example "04 Electrical", with sub-folders for certificates, O&M manuals, warranties and as-built plans.
• One folder for the handover record: the signed protocol, the ticket reports, the outstanding items list.
• Upload new versions of a file instead of new files, so that the owner always opens the current version. File versions are available on Enterprise accounts created after February 2022. Read more in Create & Manage File Versions.

Where documents have to be checked before they go into the package, request approval for them. Approvals are available on Pro and Enterprise accounts created after February 2022. Read more in Request Approval for Documents.

Document Management is available on Pro and Enterprise accounts created after February 2022. A single file can be up to 2 GB. Read more in Document Management.

How Does the Owner Get the Data?

Read more in Export a Project in the Webapp and File/Folder Access Control.

What to Avoid

• Collecting the documents in the last week. Ask every trade for its documents when its work starts, with an attachment field or a Documents folder to upload them to.
• Outstanding items in a text field of the handover ticket. They cannot be assigned, tracked or closed. Each item is a defect ticket.
• Handing over without signatures. A list that nobody signed proves nothing about what was agreed.
• Editing a signed handover ticket. Unlocking removes all signatures. If something changes after the handover, record it in a comment or a new ticket.
• A document structure only the contractor understands. Use the owner's trade or system numbering if they have one.
• Removing the project after handover. Archive it, export it, or keep the owner as watcher.

AI Support for Handovers

The Resolution Verification Agent creates the check sub-ticket with the same form as the resolved defect, so the Defect form needs the Parent ticket field.

An AI agent only ever creates a ticket, a comment or an email. It cannot sign, lock or close a ticket. Read more in Create & Manage Your AI Agents.

Steps to Manage Handovers in PlanRadar

Handovers: Workflows in PlanRadar explains each stage: prepare the forms, the folders and the document collection, walk the handover inspection, sign the handover and the protocol, close out the outstanding items and give the owner the data.

Additional Possibilities

• Record a SiteView run of every floor on handover day, as a 360° record of the state at handover. Read more in SiteView.
• Record outstanding items offline in basements and plant rooms. The mobile app syncs when back online. Read more in Working Offline.
• Give each trade its outstanding items as a PDF after the inspection. Read more in Create a Ticket Report (PDF).
• Show the signatures with name and timestamp in the handover ticket report. Read more in Sign a Ticket.
• Compare the final plan version with earlier versions before uploading as-built plans. Read more in View & Compare Plan Versions in the Webapp.
• Continue with the same forms and project for defects reported after handover. Read more in Defect Management: Workflows in PlanRadar.