Handover Meter and Service Record Checklist

Walk the property and its boundary and note every meter, valve, cover and connection point you can find, including ones you have never used.

The ones you have never used are exactly the ones that matter in an emergency, and nobody looks for them until then.

Ask which meters and covers ended up in a different position by the end of the work, and note what now sits over or in front of each one.

The site team has known the new position throughout the works and has no reason to think it is news to anybody.

Note anything on a neighbour side or in a shared area that serves your property, and record how access to it is arranged.

Access to a shared or neighbouring installation is a matter to agree with the other party and the provider rather than to assume.

Record how each item is reached, including whether a key, a lifting tool or a ladder is needed and where that equipment is kept.

A cover you cannot lift and a cupboard you cannot open are the same as an item you do not have.

Ask whether any connection point was capped, disconnected or left in place unused during the works, and record what you were told about each.

A capped or disconnected service should only be identified or handled by a qualified professional or the relevant provider.

Note anything you found that nobody present could explain, since an unexplained cover or valve is much easier to resolve while people are on site.

Unidentified items become permanent mysteries the moment the people who might have known have moved on.

Write down the reading on every meter exactly as displayed, including any leading figure you might be tempted to leave out.

Readings transcribed loosely are queried later, and by then there is no way to establish what the display actually showed.

Photograph each meter face with the display legible, and keep the image alongside the written reading rather than separately.

The photograph settles disputes that a handwritten figure cannot, particularly where a digit is ambiguous.

Note which readings were taken while the site was still occupied by the works, since consumption during construction is commonly queried afterwards.

Use during works and use by a household look nothing alike, and separating them requires a reading at the boundary between the two.

Ask whether any meter was exchanged during the project and, if so, record the readings from both the old and the new one.

Meter exchanges are a matter for the provider; ask them to confirm what was recorded rather than relying on a site account.

Record the reference marking on each meter alongside its reading, since a reading with no meter reference is hard to place later.

Where a property has more than one meter for the same supply, the reference is the only thing distinguishing them.

Take a second set of readings once you have moved back in and settled, so that a baseline exists for ordinary household use.

Two points give you something to compare, which a single reading at handover never can.

Ask which parts of the property each connection serves, since extended properties frequently carry arrangements nobody has written down.

Knowing what goes off when something is isolated is the difference between a small interruption and a household one.

Note where one supply serves more than one building, such as an outbuilding, garage or annexe brought into use during the work.

Supplies extended to a second building are rarely recorded and become confusing for everybody afterwards.

Ask what was added to a supply during the project, since new equipment often shares a route with something considerably older.

Whether an existing supply arrangement suits what has been added to it is a question for a qualified professional.

Record which items were connected to a temporary arrangement during the works, and ask whether that arrangement is now permanent.

A temporary supply arrangement should be resolved by a qualified professional rather than quietly left in use.

Note anything that serves a neighbouring property, or that a neighbour serves, and record exactly what you were told about it.

Cross boundary arrangements are usually historic, poorly documented and awkward to unpick without the original context.

Ask what would be affected if a single connection were interrupted, and write the answer down well before you need it.

This is a one sentence answer at handover and a long afternoon of investigation at any other point.

Ask where foul and surface water leave the property, and note where each was said to connect and how that was established.

Where a drainage connection is uncertain, ask a qualified professional rather than assuming from what is visible at ground level.

Note the position of every drainage cover and whether any was raised, lowered or built over during the work.

Covers disappear under new paving and planting, and their positions are recorded nowhere unless somebody does it now.

Ask what was connected into an existing drain during the project, and whether anything now shares a route that did not before.

Ask a qualified professional what taking new flow into an older drain involves here, rather than treating a completed connection as the answer.

Record where rainwater from new roofs and new paving was said to go, since this is a common source of disagreement much later.

Water arriving somewhere it did not before is noticed quickly and traced slowly, especially when it crosses a boundary.

Note anything in the drainage that needs occasional attention, such as a gully or a trap, and record where each one is.

These are simple to look after and impossible to look after if nobody knows they exist.

Ask whether any part of the drainage is shared with another property, and record what you were told and by whom.

Who is answerable for a shared drain is a question for the relevant authority and a qualified professional, not something to settle between neighbours on the day.

Note any meter measuring part of the property rather than the whole, such as one serving an annexe, a workspace or a let area.

Sub-meters installed for a reason nobody recorded end up ignored, which defeats the point of installing them.

Ask who reads each sub-meter and what the reading is used for, and record the answer alongside the meter position.

A meter with no reader and no purpose is worth knowing about, if only so it is not mistaken for something important.

Record the reading on each sub-meter at handover, next to the main meter reading for the same supply.

Sub-meter readings only mean anything when paired with the main reading taken at the same moment.

Ask whether any generating or storage equipment installed during the work records figures of its own, and how those are read.

Ask the installing qualified professional to demonstrate how such equipment is read rather than exploring its menus yourself.

Note anything measuring water, heat or electricity that was installed for monitoring rather than for accounting purposes.

Monitoring devices look like meters and are not, and confusing the two leads to some strange conversations with providers.

Ask what happens to recorded figures if a device is replaced, since the history commonly lives inside the equipment itself.

Replacing a device usually discards everything it has stored, which is only a problem if nobody expected it.

Ask each provider to confirm what they hold for the property, since a site account and a provider record often disagree in small ways.

Small discrepancies are easy to correct at the time and become extremely tedious once they have been carried forward.

Tell each provider that work has been carried out where it affected their equipment, and record who you spoke to and what they said.

What a provider needs to be told varies; confirm the position with them directly rather than relying on a site conversation.

Ask what documentation the provider expects to receive about work near their equipment, and from whom it should come.

Providers are frequently told nothing at all, because the notification sat between two parties who had each finished their part.

Note any reference the provider gives you and keep it with the meter record rather than buried in correspondence.

References are quoted back to you later, and finding them in an inbox is markedly harder than in a record.

Ask what access the provider needs to their equipment, and note whether anything installed during the work now obstructs it.

New paving, planting and joinery routinely block access that had been unobstructed for a very long time.

Record anything the provider says needs attention, and pass it to the appropriate qualified professional rather than acting on it yourself.

Anything a provider raises about their equipment belongs with them or a qualified professional, never with an owner attempting it.

Keep readings, photographs and references together in one place, since these are usually scattered across messages and never found again.

Service information is generated in fragments over a long stretch, which is precisely why it needs gathering deliberately.

Describe each position in plain words a tenant or a relative could follow without having to be shown around the property first.

A future reader may be a tenant, a relative or a trade, and none of them share your mental map of the building.

Note which information came from the site team and which came from the provider, since the two carry different weight in a later dispute.

Marking the source takes moments at the time and settles arguments that would otherwise be unresolvable.

Keep adding readings and changes to this same record instead of opening a fresh one whenever something happens to a supply.

A continuous record shows trends and changes, which separate records for each event never will.

Store a second copy somewhere you can reach without going to the building, since this record is most wanted at the moment you are not there.

The circumstances that make you reach for this record are often the ones preventing you from reaching the property.

Write down the covers, valves and references nobody could account for, and mark them clearly as unresolved rather than leaving them out.

Being explicit about the gaps is what makes the rest of the record trustworthy.