Handover in Ireland
An Irish building is handed over on paper as much as on site. The safety file, the Certificate of Compliance on Completion with its ancillary certificates, the O&M manuals and the as-built drawings all have to reach the client, and some contracts tie the completion date itself to those documents. This page walks through the sixteen lines of Fidrel’s Irish handover template, how each one moves from outstanding to approved, and what you will still have to add for your own contract.
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The completion certificate is only as complete as the ancillary certificates behind it, and those come from the architect, the structural and services engineers and each specialist, often weeks apart. A tracker spreadsheet shows that a certificate was promised; it rarely shows whether the signed copy has actually been filed where the client will look for it.
Designers and the main contractor supply the information, the project supervisor for the design process pulls the safety file together, and drafts travel back and forth by email. On handover day it can be hard to say which copy is the one issued to the client.
An apartment scheme passes from the developer to an owners’ management company or an operator, and a public building to an estates team. They inherit a pile of documents from people who are about to leave, so the set has to be arranged in a way that still makes sense without them.
Under As-built information the Irish template lists architectural, structural, mechanical and electrical drawings, and under Operation and maintenance the O&M manuals for mechanical and for electrical services. Seven lines sit under Test certificates: the Certificate of Compliance on Completion, ancillary certificates, the inspection plan as implemented, commissioning records, electrical completion certificates, gas certificates and lift certificates. Warranties and guarantees get a line of their own, the snag list sits under Completion and sign-off, and the safety file under Other. Each template line points to a folder in the Irish structure, so the upload button beside it files the document straight into the right place.
Operations
A line starts as Outstanding and moves to Submitted, Approved or Not applicable. Approving stamps who approved it and on what day, and moving it back to any other status clears that stamp again. Each line also shows its folder with a count of the documents filed there, so a glance tells you whether the signed certificate has landed or is still only promised. Above the list a bar measures approved lines against every line that applies, each section shows how many of its lines are finished, and the facilities overview repeats the totals with the number of submitted lines waiting for someone to review them.
Step 1
A project administrator creates the facilities folders once. On a project started from Fidrel’s Irish site that gives fourteen folders, running from 01 Safety file and 02 Building control through to 14 Property management, each with its own subfolders.
Step 2
Create from template shows the sixteen Irish lines grouped by section before anything is saved and, with the folders in place, adds each one already linked to the folder its document belongs in. Lines the checklist already holds are left out, so a second run never doubles them.
Step 3
Name the company or person delivering each line and the date it is due. Use New item for anything your contract adds, such as collateral warranties or the fire safety certificate. Once a due date passes, the line shows how many days it is overdue.
Step 4
When the document is filed, move the line to Submitted. After checking it, set it to Approved, which records your name and the date, or to Not applicable, which takes it out of the count altogether.
The Certificate of Compliance on Completion, the ancillary certificates and the inspection plan as implemented each have a line and a folder under 02 Building control. The same folder has places for the fire safety certificate and the disability access certificate. Fidrel treats all of them as documents to gather: whoever coordinates the certificates can see which have been filed and which are still with a designer or specialist. Fidrel lodges nothing with the building control authority and does not read or check what any certificate says.
The safety file has a single line, pointing at the folder Safety file as issued. Its parent, 01 Safety file, also has subfolders for the summary guide, design criteria, residual risks, services locations and maintenance access and procedures, so a contractor working on the building in ten years’ time can go straight to the part that concerns them. Fidrel does not compile the O&M manuals or the safety file into a single bound document.
Irish contracts give the handover day two names: practical completion in many private contracts, substantial completion in the public works contracts. On every Irish project the date field under Dates after handover is labelled Practical completion; on a public works job, enter the date of substantial completion there. The day you enter starts three entries: the end-of-defects inspection at 11 months, the end of the defects liability period at 12 and the final list of defects at 13, each a value to check against your own contract before you add it.
Much of what is handed over already lives in the project’s own folders. An administrator can bring those documents across at their current revision; the originals stay in the project, and the copy is marked when the project later receives a newer revision. When everything has to go to the client, an owners’ management company or an incoming property manager, the Export centre packs the facilities folders into a single ZIP, folders and all, with an optional CSV that gives each file’s folder, number, revision and status.
The sixteen lines are a starting point drawn from Irish practice; they do not say what your contract or the law requires of the building. The template has no line for collateral warranties, the BER certificate, the fire safety certificate or the disability access certificate; add them with New item where your contract needs them. Approving a line stores who approved it and when; that is not a signature, and it certifies nothing. Handover lines send no reminders; a line past its due date is only flagged on the checklist.
Your trial applies to your first own project and starts when that project is created. No card required. Afterwards, choose card or invoice to continue.
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Read moreHandover in Ireland
Anything else on your mind? We are happy to help.
Talk to usNot necessarily. It reflects common Irish handover practice, and your contract or the client’s brief may name more. Add those documents as lines of your own, and set any line that does not apply to Not applicable so that it drops out of the progress count.
Each has a folder: the fire safety and disability access certificates under 02 Building control, the BER certificate under 12 Energy and utilities. None of them has a line in the template, so add one with New item and point it at that folder if you want it tracked.
No. In Fidrel it is a document on a line, filed in its folder once it has been signed. Lodging it, and everything else on the building control side, happens outside Fidrel and is never started from the checklist.
The date of substantial completion. The field keeps the name Practical completion on every Irish project, and the periods that follow are counted from whatever day you enter there.
Only if they hold the right to manage facilities management as a whole. Someone whose access covers just the folder for their own certificate does not see the checklist at all; project administrators and members holding that right set the status.
Yes. From the Export centre, a person who can read the facilities area takes it away as one ZIP, folder by folder, with a CSV index of the files if that box is ticked. Nothing is bound into a single PDF.
