Commercial – Site handover letter to client

Site handover letter

Site handover letter: Handover letter to client or contractor

Site handovers...

Site handovers often involve many moving pieces, and can elicit very different emotions and reactions based on how smoothly the site handover goes.

Site handovers introduce new complexity to a project, as the status quo and normal operations which have been running smoothly (hopefully) for weeks, month or even years stop - and a new normal takes its place.

During the site handover process, many issues can arise, so it's massively important that clients, contractors and other participating parties communicate effectively during this period in order to smooth the transition.

A site handover letter is one of the tools which clients, contractors and subcontractors use to shift the onus of the project and the site to another party, after their work is deemed complete.

A site handover letter can simply serve as the confirmation of a site handover, or it can include more detail which helps the new site owner or operator understand what has been handed over, and what hasn't.

Site handover letter sample

Not all site handover letters look the same. Site handover letters to clients and contractors will look different, as will site handovers on different projects.

But maintaining a standardised site handover letter which you can use as a template for all of your different sites and projects is really helpful.

This template can serve as your general site handover framework, and you can easily adjust and modify pieces of it to suit different projects.

You want your site handover process to be neat and professional, and you want your site handovers to be as clear and concise as possible, so that you don't run into issues and disputes later down the line.

You'll see the handover letter to client below contains these elements. It covers the required information, and provides some important additional details which parties need to be aware of - and need to be able to reference.

The below site handover letter also resembles a full project handover - and the two often go hand-in-hand of course.

Company Name

Address

Contract Name

Contract Number

RE: SITE HANDOVER

I am writing with respect to [Insert project or site name] to confirm the Handover Date and occupancy of [Insert site/building etc.] effective [Insert date] as discussed with your team.  This letter will serve as our confirmation and your agreement of various aspects respecting the handover.

Please review and if you are in agreement with the content, please sign, date and return the signed letter to [Insert responsible person name], at the above address.

  • Insurance information:
  • Warranties:
  • Manuals and record drawings:
  • Completion of prime responsibilities:
  • Operations and maintenance of building site:
  • Disposition of surplus equipment and materials
  • Presence of staff on site:

We are pleased to hand over this facility to [Insert company name], and appreciate the on-going support and assistance from you and your staff.  Should you have any questions with respect to the above, please contact [Insert name] on [Insert phone number]. 

Signed by,
Authorised Person

How to supplement your site handover letter

So we know that the site handover letter to clients, and the site handover letters to contractors are important communication pieces during any site handover.

But outside of communicating a site handover, what can a client or contractor do to ensure that the site handover goes to plan.

One really helpful document for this is a site or project handover checklist.

Instead of scrambling to get everything together, a checklist enables a company to comb through the elements of the site handover which they need to cover.

This checklist (as you can see below), should cover all of the elements of a site or project handover, including files, licenses, insurances and access and defect arrangements.

The problem with most failed handovers is that something was missed or forgotten. A good checklist ensures that nothing gets missed or forgotten, and that both parties have performed their duties during the site handover.

Site handover letter

Use this site handover checklist for your handovers.

Staying on track for your site handovers

On most sites, the site handover is a small part of the overall length of the project. The site handover is the conclusion and culmination of all of those weeks, months or years of work.

But most of the site handover hard work occurs during the project of course. Staying on track for the site handover can be really hard work - because staying on track means delivering on time and on budget.

One of the areas in which we (sitemate) have seen companies really improve in their ability to stay on track for site handovers is by properly organising their project information during the project delivery phase.

And what does properly organised information look like?

Well, construction and other site-based companies often spend hours and hours just reconciling the information which has been collected during the project.

This means that the site handover process often involves a mad scramble and a bunch of end-of-project headaches in the form of delays, defects and other issues.

Organising your project information properly from the outset - with a dedicated system like Dashpivot - ensures that you head into a site handover with all of your ducks in a row.

Construction project management software

You can store, access and share any of the photos or site documents captured during any part of project delivery from a single place.

Exporting critical handover forms, photos and documents takes seconds not hours, and al of your records are reliable and professional.

At the start of a project, creating standardised and efficient processes can seem lot a lot of work, especially with a large project right around the corner.

But once you have started the project, and once your supervisors, engineers and project managers are stuck into the day-to-day work of project delivery, it can be impossible to improve the processes you started with on day one.

Projects can get away from you, and by the time that the site handover arrives, you are in no position to handover a good and well documented site to a client or contractor.

Your site handover letter to your client, or site handover letter to your contractor needs to be thorough and professional, but the best way to supplement a site handover letter is with a well organised and well delivered project - which often takes more than a single letter.

See how you can easily streamline your systems and processes with Sitemate today

About Lance Hodgson

Lance is VP of Marketing at Sitemate. His aim is to bring awareness to a brighter future for the Built World where industrial workers and companies work smarter.

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