What paperwork should I have at the end of building work?

Every one of these documents is easy to obtain in the week the job finishes and hard to obtain a year later, when the builder has moved on and the scheme needs a reference nobody kept. The list below is what a buyer's solicitor works through, in roughly this order, and having it complete is the difference between a smooth sale and a delayed one.

Step by step

1. Start the list before the job ends, not after.Write out everything the project should produce during the last fortnight of work, and tick items off as they arrive. Half of them are issued by people who are still on site that week.
2. Chase the building control completion certificate.It follows a satisfactory final inspection, not the end of the work. Book the final inspection yourself if nobody else has, and follow up until the certificate is in your hands.
3. Chase the scheme certificates separately from the trade certificates.The electrician gives you an installation certificate; their scheme sends a building regulations compliance certificate weeks later. You need both, and the second one is the one that goes missing.
4. Register every warranty immediately.Boiler, windows, roof, appliances. Most require registration within a period of installation, and diarising it for the week after handover is what stops a warranty being void before it is ever used.
5. Collect the as-built photographs into one folder.Every wall and floor with services visible, taken before covering. Name them by room. In ten years this is the most useful document in the file and nobody else can recreate it.
6. Record the finishes and the spares.Paint names and codes, tile batch references, flooring product, sealant colours, and where the spare tiles are stored. Trivial now, invaluable when something needs matching.
7. Reconcile the final account.Contract sum plus agreed variations against the final invoice, with every payment record attached. Settle any difference before the retention is released rather than afterwards.
8. File everything in one place with the deeds.One physical folder and one scanned folder backed up. Tell whoever else lives in the house where it is — this file matters most at moments when you may not be the one looking for it.
9. Diarise the defects period and the servicing.The date the defects period ends, and annual servicing dates for anything whose warranty depends on it. Both are commitments the paperwork has quietly created.

Tips

• Ask for everything electronically as well as on paper. Paper certificates are lost in house moves and digital copies survive.
• If a document has not arrived a month after the job, chase the scheme or the authority directly rather than only the tradesperson. They will usually reissue on request while the job is recent.
• When you sell, this folder is what the conveyancer's enquiries are built from. Complete, it removes a whole category of delay.

Common mistakes

• Assuming the builder is keeping the paperwork for you — They are not, and they have no reason to once the job is paid. Every certificate should reach you directly and be filed by you.
• Filing the certificates and not the photographs — The certificates satisfy a solicitor; the as-built photographs are what stop a future drill going into a pipe. Keep both, in the same place.

Checklist

• Planning decision notice with approved drawings, or a lawful development certificate
• Discharge of any pre-commencement planning conditions
• Building control completion certificate, or Scottish completion certificate accepted by the verifier
• Full plans approval and approved drawings, if that route was used
• Electrical Installation Certificate or Minor Works Certificate from the electrician
• Building regulations compliance certificate from the electrician's competent person scheme
• Gas Safe engineer's record of work, plus the scheme's compliance certificate for a boiler
• Completed commissioning checklist in the boiler manual, signed and dated
• Window and door scheme certificate for any replacement glazing
• Structural engineer's calculations and details, and any as-built confirmation
• Party wall award and the schedule of condition, where one applies
• Guarantees, insurance-backed guarantee policies and manufacturer warranties, all registered
• Appliance manuals, paint and tile references, and any spare materials
• As-built photographs of every wall and floor before covering, dated
• The final account, all invoices and all payment records

Questions people ask