Scope of Works Document Review Checklist

Ask which drawings and which issue of them the scope was written against, and note whether you hold that same issue yourself.

A scope written against an earlier layout describes a job that no longer exists, and nothing on the face of the document reveals it.

Ask whether the person who wrote the scope has been to the property, which rooms they saw and whether anything was inaccessible when they were there.

Scope written from drawings alone tends to omit exactly the awkward corners an owner already knows are difficult.

Note where wording repeats between rooms word for word, and ask whether those sections were written for your property or carried over from a template.

Repeated wording is not necessarily wrong, but it is a good indication of where nobody has looked closely at your particular situation.

Read your own written brief alongside the scope and mark anything you asked for that does not appear anywhere in the document.

Items dropped between the brief and the scope are rarely dropped deliberately; they simply never got written down again.

Ask what is meant to happen to the scope when a drawing is revised, and who is responsible for updating the document to match.

How a scope tracks a drawing revision depends on the arrangement in place; ask the appointed professionals rather than assuming it updates itself.

Record the date and any issue marking on the scope document, and keep every earlier version you were sent rather than replacing them.

Scope documents are revised during discussions, and the changes between versions are usually where the interesting questions are.

Walk each room holding the scope and work out where the described work stops on every wall, at the ceiling line and at the floor.

Reading a scope at a table describes an idea of the room; reading it standing in the room shows you the surfaces nobody mentioned.

Check what the scope says happens at each doorway between a room being worked on and one that is not, including the frame, the architrave and the floor covering either side.

Thresholds sit between two scopes and are frequently claimed by neither, which is obvious only once one side has been finished.

Note where decoration is described as stopping, and ask what happens where a newly finished surface meets an older one that is not being touched.

Whether an existing finish can be matched or joined into is a judgement for the trades involved; ask rather than assuming an invisible join.

Check whether the ground, paving, planting and boundary treatment around any external work are mentioned, and how far out from the building the scope reaches.

Ground disturbed by access, spoil and deliveries extends well past the described work, and the reinstatement of it is often unassigned.

Ask what the scope covers in rooms directly above and below the work, since disturbance, dust and service alterations rarely stay within one storey.

Ceilings below and floors above are affected by work that is described entirely in terms of a single room.

List every area the document states is excluded, and write down what you understand will be done there instead and by whom.

An exclusion says only that this document does not cover the work, not that the work is unnecessary; ask the appointed professionals what it needs.

List the items that need more than one trade to complete, such as a fitted unit that also needs power, water or extraction, and ask who owns each part.

Items requiring a sequence of visits are the ones most likely to be described once and assumed by everybody to be somebody else's complete responsibility.

Ask who is responsible for forming and making good openings where services pass through walls, floors and ceilings, and who decides where those openings go.

Where anything may pass through a structural element is a question for a qualified structural engineer and must never be settled on site alone.

Ask who prepares a surface for the trade that follows, and what standard of preparation the following trade expects to find.

Preparation is the classic unassigned task, because each trade assumes the other one either did it or will do it.

Check who fits, connects and commissions anything you are supplying yourself, and what the scope assumes about when those items will be on site.

Responsibilities for owner-supplied items vary between projects; ask the appointed professionals what is assumed about delivery, storage and fixing.

Ask who removes existing fittings, units and floor coverings that have to come out, and whether anything is to be set aside for reuse rather than discarded.

Items an owner intended to keep are removed as waste more often than any other single misunderstanding on a scope.

Ask who is responsible for coordinating the order in which trades arrive, and who tells you when a decision from you is holding that sequence up.

Coordination is a real task that is often assumed rather than assigned, particularly where trades are engaged separately.

Ask what the scope assumes is behind the surfaces that will be opened up, and get those assumptions written down in the document itself.

What lies behind a surface can only be established by opening it up; ask the appointed professionals how that is to be done and who attends.

Ask what the scope says should happen if conditions turn out differently from what was assumed, and who must be told before further work proceeds.

Deciding that a difference does not matter is a professional judgement; agree in advance who is contacted and who may call for work to pause.

Write down what you already know about the building from living in it, including damp patches, past leaks, uneven floors and areas that have been altered before.

Owner knowledge of the building is rarely asked for systematically, yet it is the most readily available source of information anybody has.

Note any part of the scope described as subject to survey or investigation, and ask who is arranging that work and what happens to the scope afterwards.

Whether an investigation is needed and what it should cover is a matter for qualified professionals, not something to settle from a scope document.

Ask what the scope assumes about the position of existing services, and who establishes where they actually run before anything is cut or lifted.

Establishing the route of existing services is specialist work; ask the appointed professionals and the relevant supply authorities what applies.

Ask what is assumed about the materials already in the building, and what the scope says should happen if something unexpected is uncovered.

Unidentified existing materials must be assessed by suitably qualified specialists; do not disturb, sample or describe them yourself.

Check what the scope says about how the work is reached, which route is used through the property and which entrance is expected to be available.

Access through a hall, a garden or a neighbouring boundary changes what protection is needed and what an owner is agreeing to.

Ask what protection of floors, staircases, fittings and furniture is included, and who puts it in place, maintains it and takes it away.

Protection is often assumed to be included, and it is the first thing to disappear when a job is under pressure.

Write down which rooms you are expected to empty yourself and by what point, and where the contents are expected to go while the work is on.

Clearing rooms is almost always the owner's responsibility, and it is almost never stated in the document.

Ask what the scope says about interruptions to water, power and heating, how much notice you will be given and who tells you.

Isolating and restoring supplies is work for suitably qualified trades and the relevant supply authorities; ask who is arranging each one.

Ask what facilities the people working on site will use, including where they will wash, eat and take deliveries, and what that requires from you.

Where facilities are not described, the assumption is usually that the owner's property provides them, which is worth establishing early.

Ask how the property is to be secured at the end of each working period, who holds keys or access codes and who is responsible for locking up.

Security and insurance arrangements during work vary; confirm what is required with your own insurer and the appointed professionals.

Ask what the document means by leaving the property clean and clear, and what standard of cleaning is actually included at the end of the work.

Builder cleaning and the cleaning an owner imagines are two different things, and the gap is discovered on the last visit.

Ask who removes waste and packaging, where it is stored in the meantime and how often it is taken away during the work.

Waste removal is subject to local requirements that vary; confirm what applies with the relevant local authority and the contractor arranging it.

Ask what making good covers in each area, including whether it means patching a surface, refinishing a whole element or something in between.

Making good is the single most elastic phrase in a scope document and means something different to almost everybody who reads it.

Write down what happens to items removed during the work, including anything you want kept, and where those items are to be stored in the meantime.

An item nobody was told to keep is treated as waste, and by the time this is noticed the skip has already gone.

Ask which documents, instructions and product paperwork are due to you at the end of the work, and whether the scope mentions them at all.

Which certificates or records apply depends on the work and local requirements; confirm with the appointed professionals and the relevant authority.

Ask how items still outstanding at the end are recorded, who lists them and how you are told when each one has been dealt with.

A list made by the person who has to complete it works differently from one made jointly, and it is worth knowing which you are getting.

Ask how any change to the scope is recorded, who writes it down and how you will know that the document you hold is no longer the current one.

Changes agreed in conversation and never written back into the scope are the reason two people can honestly disagree about what was included.

Ask who on each side is entitled to agree a change to the scope, and record those names so that nobody else assumes they can.

Who may vary agreed work is set by your contract; ask your own legal adviser to tell you what your particular arrangement actually says.

Keep the scope as it was originally agreed, unaltered, alongside any later version, so the difference between them can always be established.

Without the original, a revised document simply becomes the truth, and nobody can say what changed or when.

Record changes that take work out of the scope as carefully as those that add to it, including who suggested the removal and why.

Removals are agreed quickly, discussed briefly and remembered poorly, which makes them the harder half of the record.

Ask what else in the scope a proposed change affects, including trades that have not yet arrived and items already ordered.

Working out the knock-on effect of a change is a professional task; ask the appointed professionals to set out what it touches before it is agreed.

Arrange to read the scope again once the building has been opened up, and note which of its assumptions have now been tested and which still have not.

The scope written before anything was exposed is the version everybody keeps working from, long after it stopped matching the building.