Connected System Account and Access Handover Checklist

Walk the property with the installer and list everything that is controlled, configured or monitored through an app, a hub or an online account.

Doing this as a walk rather than from memory is what catches the items nobody would have thought to mention.

Ask specifically about items that look like ordinary equipment — a thermostat, a doorbell, a light switch, a valve, a meter, a lock.

The things with a hidden control arrangement are usually the ones that look exactly like their unconnected equivalents.

Note for each item whether it can be fully used without the app, or whether some settings are only reachable through it.

This distinction matters enormously and is rarely stated, because the installer has always used the app themselves.

Note who supplied and who installed each item, since the two are frequently different and the account usually follows one of them.

When something needs sorting out later, knowing which of the two to contact saves a great deal of time.

Ask which items depend on another item to work, and write down what would stop working if that other thing were removed.

Dependencies between installed equipment are invisible and are usually discovered by something being unplugged.

Photograph each item and any label, model number or identifier on it, and keep the photographs with the list.

Identifiers on installed equipment are often in awkward places and become unreachable once everything is finished.

Ask, for each item, whose account or login it was set up under, and whether that is an account belonging to you or to the installer.

This is the question the whole handover turns on and it is almost never asked while anybody is still on site.

Ask who can currently see, control or change the settings on each item, including anybody at the installer or supplier.

The answer is sometimes a longer list than an owner expects, and knowing it is the point of asking.

Ask whether each item has settings only reachable at an installer level, what they are for, and who holds that access.

Knowing that a level exists above yours explains a great deal about what you will and will not be able to change.

Note which email address or account identity each item is registered against, and whether that is one the household controls.

An item registered to an address nobody in the household can reach is effectively registered to nobody.

Ask whether registering the product is separate from setting up the app, who did each, and under what name.

These are two different things and are frequently done by two different people, or by neither.

Write the answers down against each item on your list rather than as a general statement about the installation.

The answers usually differ between items, so a single summary sentence loses exactly the information that matters.

Ask, for each item, exactly how ownership or control is transferred to the household, and who has to do what for that to happen.

The process differs between products and is rarely something an owner can do without the installer's participation.

Ask for the transfer to be carried out before the installer's last visit, and to watch it happen rather than being told it will be done.

Anything left to be done after the last visit is an arrangement that depends on goodwill and availability months later.

Log in yourself, on your own device, and operate each item in turn while the installer is still present in the property.

This is the only test that proves the transfer worked, and it takes a few minutes while somebody can still fix it.

Ask what happens to the installer's own access after transfer, whether it is removed, and how you would verify that.

Access that remains after a job has finished is a perfectly ordinary situation to ask about and to be clear on.

Ask which settings or functions remain with the installer whatever happens, why that is, and record the answer against each item on the list.

Some arrangements genuinely cannot be handed over, and knowing which they are is better than assuming otherwise.

Set up your own account details yourself rather than being given somebody else's, and never continue to use credentials created by an installer.

Credentials created by somebody else remain theirs in every practical sense, however the arrangement is described.

Do not record account details in the property file or share them in messages. Ask a qualified adviser about anything you are unsure of.

Ask, for each item on the list, what still works if the internet connection stops, and which functions stop working along with it.

This is the most common of the three failures and the one owners are least often told anything about.

Ask whether any item depends on a hub, bridge or controller, where that device is, and what happens to everything if it fails.

A single hub can be holding several items together, and its position and identity are worth recording.

Ask whether any item depends on an ongoing subscription, who is paying it, whose name it is in, and what stops if it lapses.

A subscription set up during a project and forgotten is a common way for something to stop working later without explanation.

Ask for each item whether it can be operated by hand at the item itself, and be shown how.

Being shown rather than told is important, because the manual method is often not obvious on a connected device.

How any installed equipment may be operated or overridden by hand comes from the qualified trade who installed it and the manufacturer information; do not improvise a method.

Ask what happens to the settings if power is lost, if something is reset, or if a device is replaced.

Settings that took a commissioning visit to establish and are lost on a reset are worth knowing about in advance.

Ask what happens to each item if the manufacturer stops supporting its app or platform, and record the answer given.

Asking the question tells you whether anybody has considered it, which is informative whatever the answer is.

List who in the household needs to be able to operate each item, including anybody who stays occasionally or looks after the property.

Writing the list is what makes it obvious that several items are currently operable by one person only.

Ask how another person is given access to each item, what they need, and whether it can be done without the installer.

The process differs between products and is much easier to be shown once than to work out later.

Have a second person in the household operate each item themselves before the installer leaves, rather than watching somebody else do it.

Watching and doing are different, and the second person is the one who will need it at an awkward moment.

Ask whether different people can be given different levels of control, and record what was set up for whom.

This matters in households with children, lodgers or visitors and is usually configurable if it is raised.

Note anybody who looks after the property when the household is away, and what they would need to be able to do.

This is discovered on the first occasion the household is away, which is the worst time to sort it out.

Write down what the household would do if the person who set everything up were unavailable for a long period.

Every household has a single point of failure here, and naming it is most of the way to removing it.

Write a single list of every connected item, where it is, what it does, who supplied it and who installed it.

This inventory is the useful, shareable part of the record and contains nothing that needs protecting.

Keep account details and credentials entirely separately from the property record, and never write them into a document that gets shared.

The property file gets passed to trades, family and eventually a buyer, and credentials have no place in it.

This checklist does not advise on how to store credentials. Take that question to an appropriately qualified adviser.

Record where any hub, bridge or controller is physically located, what it is connected to, and what depends on it.

These devices end up in cupboards and lofts and are the first thing somebody unplugs when they need a socket.

Collect the manufacturer information for each connected item and keep it with the inventory rather than in an inbox.

This is what anybody working on the equipment later will need, and it disappears into email otherwise.

Ask each installer what settings they configured on the equipment and whether they will leave you a written record of those settings.

Commissioning settings are the product of a visit and are lost entirely if a device is replaced or reset.

Take the settings record from the qualified trade who carried out the work; nothing here indicates what any setting should be.

Date the record, note who compiled it, and keep it where the whole household can find it rather than on one person's device.

A record only one person can reach is another single point of failure of exactly the kind this checklist is about.

Ask, for each item, what would have to happen for somebody else to take over control of it, and whether you can do that yourself.

The answer determines whether the equipment is an asset to a future occupier or an obstacle for them.

Ask what a new occupier would need from you, and note it alongside the inventory rather than working it out at the time.

This is the moment the information exists and the installer is contactable; both of those change later.

Ask which items would need a professional visit to be set up again for somebody else, and record which ones those are.

Anything needing a visit is worth flagging in the property record so it is not discovered as a surprise.

Note which items would stop being useful to somebody else without a subscription they would have to take out themselves.

This is a real and increasingly common situation and is much better disclosed than discovered.

Keep the inventory with the other property records so it passes on with the building rather than staying with the household.

This information is about the building, and the building outlasts everybody's memory of what was installed.

Update the inventory whenever something is added, replaced or removed, rather than leaving it as a snapshot of the day the work finished.

A record that was accurate once and has not been touched since is worse than no record, because it is believed.