Connecting to Your Maintenance Strategy at Capital Project Handover
Capital project handover is the formal transfer of a completed building, or a completed part of one, from the project team to the people who will operate and maintain it. It covers the asset information, documentation, warranties, certification and training the maintenance team needs to run the building from day one.
It is the last stage of a project and the first stage of an FM programme, which is why it is so often the point where value leaks out of both. A project does not really end at practical completion. It ends when the building is running well and is set up to keep running well. That is a facilities management question, and it should be answered before the contractor leaves site.
This piece completes our September series, following the pillar blog on capital project delivery in live environments. If you have a project approaching handover and you are not confident the FM side is ready for it, we would be glad to talk it through. You can see how we deliver capital projects or talk to our team.
What does a capital project handover involve?
Ask the people who will maintain the building what they need, and the answer is consistent. A complete capital project handover gives the FM team:
- A full asset register, listing every item of plant with location, make, model and serial number
- Accurate condition information for the assets being taken on
- Complete O&M documentation covering operation, maintenance and replacement
- The relevant warranties, with the conditions attached to them clearly stated
- Statutory and final certification, including commissioning records
- Training on the new systems for the people who will operate them
With those in place, the FM team can stand up a maintenance regime immediately. Without them, they spend the first months of occupation reverse-engineering what they have inherited, at the customer’s cost.
IN OUR EXPERIENCE
In our experience the information most often missing at handover is final certification and the presence of key stakeholder representatives. And the consequence is concrete: where a practical completion certificate is issued without the maintenance team accepting handover, plant ends up un-maintained and warranties are put at risk. A good handover is the opposite, it makes the FM team’s job easier and protects the value of everything the project delivered.
When should handover planning start?
Handover planning should start at design stage, not at completion. The information the FM team needs is generated throughout the project, so the real decision is whether it is captured as it is produced or assembled retrospectively in the final weeks.
Setting the requirement early, in the brief and in the contract, is what makes the difference. Handover then becomes a matter of confirming information that already exists rather than chasing information that does not. RIBA Stage 6 covers handover and Stage 7 covers use, but the preparation for both sits much earlier in the process, alongside the decisions covered in our August piece on design and costing.
It is also a contractual question. What the contractor must produce at handover, and in what format, belongs in the contract rather than in a conversation near the end. Our piece on contract terms every customer should question covers where those obligations usually sit.
Setting up planned preventative maintenance before the project ends
Planned preventative maintenance, or PPM, is the scheduled servicing and inspection that keeps plant working rather than repairing it after it fails. It is cheaper and easier to establish while the project team is still on site and the knowledge is fresh.
Capturing assets into the maintenance system, scheduling PPM tasks against recognised standards, and aligning hard and soft FM around the new estate should all begin before completion, not after the first breakdown. Where a maintenance provider is already in place, bringing them into the closing stages of the project lets the regime start on the day the building opens rather than weeks later. Good asset data is what makes that possible, which is why we capture it into BiO® rather than leaving it in a folder.
The hidden cost of a poor capital project handover
A poor handover is invisible on completion day and expensive ever after. It shows up as:
- Reactive maintenance in place of planned maintenance, at a higher cost per intervention
- Hours spent trying to find assets that aren’t easily located or where special access is required
- Avoidable call-outs on plant nobody was briefed to operate
- Remedial works to put right what was never properly closed out
- Warranty claims that fail because the conditions attached to them were not met
- Disputes surfacing at the end of the defects liability period, when they are hardest to resolve
Each of those costs more than getting the handover right would have.
IN OUR EXPERIENCE
This is precisely why we advocate phased handover and phased acceptance of plant and warranties, and why we insist the maintenance team is present to accept what they’re taking on. The handover process exists for a reason, understanding its purpose, and treating it as the start of the FM relationship rather than the end of the project, is what protects the building over its whole life.
Getting the people right matters as much as getting the documents right. Who accepts handover, and who has authority to raise a defect afterwards, is a question of governance rather than paperwork, and it is covered in our piece on capital project stakeholder management. The checks to run before signing anything are covered in the questions to ask before you sign off.
Common questions about capital project handover
What is the difference between practical completion and handover?
Practical completion is a contractual milestone confirming the works are complete enough for the building to be used. Handover is the transfer of the building and its information to the team who will operate and maintain it. They often happen at the same time, but they are not the same thing, and a certificate can be issued before the maintenance team has accepted what they are taking on.
Who is responsible for producing the asset register?
Under most standard forms the contractor produces it, but the specification for it is the customer’s responsibility. If the format the FM team needs is not stated in the contract, the register that arrives is unlikely to be the one they can use. Agreeing the format early, against the system it has to load into, avoids retyping it later.
What is a soft landings approach?
Soft Landings is a recognised framework for extending the project team’s involvement beyond completion, so the building is tuned in use rather than left to settle on its own. Government Soft Landings applies the principle to public sector projects, supported by BS 8536. In practice it means aftercare, monitoring and post-occupancy evaluation are planned in from the start.
How long is the defects liability period?
Commonly twelve months from practical completion, though it varies by contract. JCT forms use a rectification period that defaults to six months and is often amended to twelve. It is the window in which defects found in use are put right by the contractor, so having the information and the access to raise them promptly is what makes it useful.
One connected story
A well-delivered capital project and a well-run building are the same story told in two halves. Handover is the hinge between them. Plan it as carefully as you plan the construction, and the maintenance strategy almost looks after itself.
It is also why we bring projects and ongoing building management together under one accountable team, so the handover is not a handoff between strangers but a transition within a single relationship. For our existing maintenance customers, capital works are a natural extension of a partnership where we already know the buildings and how they run.
If you are planning capital works and want the FM side considered from the outset, you can see how our capital projects and hard FM teams work together, or talk to us about your project.
