Changing Professionals Mid-Project Preparation Checklist

Write down what stage the work had reached when things stopped, describing it in terms of what physically exists rather than in terms of a stage name.

Stage names mean different things to different practices, while a description of what is built and what is drawn is unambiguous.

Note separately what has been built, what has been drawn but not built, and what was discussed but never drawn at all.

The third category is the one that disappears in a handover, because nothing in the file records that it was ever contemplated.

Record whether anything was changed after the drawings were issued, and whether the change reached paper or was only agreed on site.

Changes agreed verbally during works are precisely the information a replacement has no way of discovering.

Where work already built may differ from the drawings, say so openly to anyone you approach rather than letting them assume the set is current.

List everybody still appointed on the project, including consultants, contractors and any specialist supplier, and note which of them are affected by the change.

A change of one professional often disturbs several relationships that were arranged around them.

Note what is physically waiting, such as an open excavation, an unenclosed structure or an order placed but not delivered.

Some conditions deteriorate or become unsafe if left, and a replacement needs to know about them at the first conversation.

If anything left standing may be unsafe or is deteriorating, raise it immediately with a suitably qualified professional rather than waiting for a new appointment.

Date your account of where things stand, because it will be read weeks later by somebody deciding whether to take the project on.

An undated summary is treated as current long after it stopped being so.

Ask the outgoing party for a list of everything they produced for the project, including superseded issues, rather than only for the current set.

Superseded documents explain how the design arrived where it did, and they are frequently the only record of a rejected option.

Ask whether a drawing register or issue record exists, and use it to check whether anything on the list never reached you.

A register turns the question of completeness from a guess into something you can check line by line.

Ask for any calculations, reports, surveys or investigation results that sit behind the design, not only the drawings that resulted from them.

A replacement asked to build on somebody else's design usually wants the basis of it, and the basis is rarely in the drawings.

Ask for the correspondence with any authority or other third party, including what was submitted, what came back, and anything still outstanding at the moment they left.

An outstanding item with an authority can be the single most urgent thing in a handover and the least visible.

What a change of professional requires you to notify is confirmed with the relevant local authority rather than assumed from what you were told.

Ask what format each item can be provided in, and whether anything exists only in a form that another professional cannot work from.

Information supplied only as flattened copies may have to be redrawn, which is worth knowing before a replacement discovers it.

Note where the drawings you hold appear to describe something different from what is on site, and flag those areas rather than resolving them yourself.

Reconciling drawings against built work is professional work; identifying that a discrepancy exists is the owner's useful contribution.

Ask whether they hold site notes, photographs or records of visits, particularly of anything that has since been covered up.

Photographs of work now concealed cannot be recreated, and their value rises steadily as the building is finished.

Ask for their record of instructions given and decisions made, which is usually more complete than anything that reached you at the time.

Their internal record often explains the reasoning behind choices that appear arbitrary in the drawings alone.

Ask what information they received from other parties on your behalf, such as supplier details or specialist design, and whether you were ever copied.

Information routed through a professional often stops there, and the owner has no idea it exists.

Ask them to write down what they consider unfinished, unresolved or waiting on somebody, even if the appointment is ending badly.

This list is the cheapest thing in the whole handover and the hardest to reconstruct afterwards.

Ask who at the practice would answer a factual question later, and whether they are willing to, without assuming that they are.

A single factual answer months later can save a great deal of work, but the route has to exist.

Put the request for information in writing and keep a copy, listing what you have asked for rather than asking generally for the file.

A specific written request is answerable, and it also records what was asked if the answer is incomplete.

If information is not provided and it matters, that is a question for your own legal adviser rather than something to pursue through further requests.

Find the original appointment terms and read what they say about using the information after the appointment ends, rather than assuming payment settled it.

Appointment terms commonly address this directly, and the answer varies considerably between arrangements.

What you may do with drawings prepared by somebody else is a legal question; take advice from your own legal adviser rather than relying on general understanding.

Ask the outgoing party in writing what they are content for you to do with their information, and keep whatever answer you receive.

A clear written answer, whichever way it goes, is far more useful than an unanswered assumption.

Expect a prospective replacement to ask this question early, and have your answer ready rather than discovering it during that conversation.

Many professionals will not proceed on somebody else's information until the position is clear.

Ask what the position is for information already submitted to an authority, which may sit differently from information that never left the project.

Submissions and approvals have their own arrangements, and owners routinely conflate the two subjects.

Note that parts of the set may have been produced by a specialist rather than by the outgoing party, and ask who those parts belong to.

A design package frequently contains work by several parties, each with its own arrangement.

Write down the position you have established, with the source of each part of it, so you are not re-establishing it at each new conversation.

This subject resurfaces at every subsequent appointment, and a written position saves repeating the whole enquiry.

Ask whether they are taking responsibility for the existing design, reviewing it, or starting again for the parts that matter to them.

These three positions look similar in conversation and are entirely different in what they leave you holding.

Ask which parts they would want to redo regardless, and why, so that the cost of the change is visible in scope rather than only in fees.

Work redone is the ordinary consequence of a mid-project change, and it is better understood at the outset.

Ask what position they take on work already built to somebody else's design, and what they would need before commenting on it at all.

Built work carries a different kind of question from drawn work, and most professionals treat it separately.

Any view about part-built work needs a suitably qualified professional attending the property; nothing in an owner's file substitutes for that.

Ask what they need from the outgoing party specifically, and go back with that list rather than requesting everything in general terms.

A targeted second request is much more likely to be answered than an open one.

Ask who is covering the period between the two appointments, and whether anything on site should stop until somebody is engaged.

The gap is the interval in which decisions get made on site with nobody appointed to make them.

Ask what they expect to be notified to other parties, such as an authority, an insurer or a warranty provider, and who does the notifying.

A change of professional can be relevant to arrangements the owner made separately and has stopped thinking about.

Tell whoever is building what has happened, what they should do with questions in the meantime, and who is authorised to answer them.

A contractor without a designer to ask will either stop or decide, and neither is a good default.

Ask the relevant local authority whether a change of professional affects anything you have submitted or anything already agreed.

Whether this matters depends entirely on local arrangements, which is why it is asked rather than assumed.

Requirements vary by location and by project; confirm the position with your local authority rather than acting on general information.

Tell any insurer or warranty provider involved in the project, and ask whether the change affects cover, inspections or anything already arranged.

Warranty and insurance arrangements are frequently built around named parties and stated stages.

If a lender or funder is involved, ask them what they need to be told and whether any release depends on a party remaining appointed.

Funding arrangements often reference stages confirmed by a named person, which a change of professional directly affects.

Check whether any agreement with a neighbour or adjoining owner names the outgoing party, and ask who should be told about the change.

Agreements reached with neighbours often name individuals, and those arrangements do not follow automatically.

Contact any supplier holding an order or a made-to-measure item and confirm who they should now deal with about it.

Orders in progress are frequently held against a contact rather than against the project.

Write a short list of the questions that are about entitlement, obligation or money rather than about design, and keep them separate from your project notes.

Mixing the two makes it easy to say something in a design conversation that belongs in a legal one.

Where the outgoing appointment ended in disagreement, avoid negotiating the terms of the handover yourself and route it through your own adviser.

Informal exchanges during a contested handover frequently become the material that the later discussion turns on.

If the relationship has broken down to the point of dispute, stop working through this checklist and speak to your own legal adviser.

Keep the full correspondence rather than a selection of it, and avoid editing or summarising exchanges into your own project notes.

A summary written under pressure is rarely neutral, and the original is what anybody advising you will want.

Describe what happened factually in anything you write, without characterising anyone's conduct, since your notes may be read by people you did not anticipate.

Factual accounts remain useful in every scenario, while characterisations narrow your options.

Note anything unpaid, unreturned or unresolved as a plain list, and hand that list to your adviser rather than acting on it yourself.

These items usually interact with one another in ways that are not obvious from any single one of them.