Subcontractor Information Record Checklist

Ask the contractor which parts of the work are carried out by their own people and which are engaged out to other trades, and record the answer as given.

Knowing the split tells you why some questions get an immediate answer and others take a while to come back.

Record the part of the work rather than individual names wherever you can, so your record describes the structure of the project and not the people in it.

Individuals change during a project while the division of the work usually does not, and the structure is the useful part.

Ask who answers for each part of the work if a question arises about it later, and write down whether that is the contractor in every case or somebody else.

Who is answerable for each part depends on how the work has been arranged; ask the contractor to state it and take any question about your agreement to your own legal adviser.

Note anything you have arranged directly yourself, since work outside the main arrangement sits in a different position from everything else on site.

Directly arranged work is where coordination gaps appear, and owners rarely record which items they arranged themselves.

Keep any view about how competent or careful somebody appears out of the record entirely, and take a genuine concern to the contractor instead.

Judging whether anybody is competent or qualified is not an owner task; raise a concern with the contractor and let them deal with it.

Ask how you will be told when a different trade takes over part of the work, and record what you are told rather than working it out from who turns up.

Changes of trade part-way through explain a great deal about what happens on site, and owners usually learn about them by accident.

Note which trade attended and which part of the property they worked in, rather than trying to record everything that was done while they were there.

Trade and area are enough to trace a question later, and attempting a fuller account means the note never gets written.

Record the date a trade first attended and the date they appear to have finished, and mark the second as your own observation rather than a stated fact.

Knowing when somebody stopped attending is what tells you whether a question can still be put to them easily.

Whether a trade has finished their part of the work is for the contractor to state; do not treat their absence as confirmation that it is complete.

Note anybody attending that you were not expecting, and ask the contractor who they were and what they came for rather than approaching them yourself.

Ask the contractor about anybody unfamiliar attending the property rather than questioning them directly or letting anybody in without checking.

Record visits that were not work on the property, such as somebody attending to look at something or take a measurement, since these often precede a change.

A visit to look at something is usually the first sign of a question the owner has not yet been told about.

Note occasions when a trade attended and could not carry on, together with what you were told the reason was, in the words used at the time.

These occasions are the ones that get explained differently later, and a contemporaneous note is the only fixed point.

Keep the attendance record to plain facts about the work and avoid anything about individual behaviour, timekeeping or conversations overheard.

A record that stays factual can be shown to anybody, which is what makes it useful when a question actually arises.

Pass every instruction and every answer through the agreed contact even when the trade asking is standing in front of you, and note that you did so.

An answer given straight to a trade can conflict with coordination you cannot see; pass everything through the contact the contractor has confirmed.

Write down each question a trade asks you directly, along with what you said, and pass both to your contact rather than leaving it as a private exchange.

The answers owners give in doorways are the ones that surface later as instructions nobody knew had been given.

Where two trades want different things in the same place, record both positions and put them to your contact rather than deciding between them yourself.

Resolving a conflict between trades is for the contractor and the appointed professionals; an owner decision can undo work already coordinated.

Record any occasion where you asked for something small while a trade was on site, since these accumulate and are rarely written down by anybody.

Small requests made in passing are the most common cause of a later disagreement about what was included.

Note anything a trade tells you about the work in passing, with who said it, and treat it as a prompt to ask your contact rather than as settled information.

Trades often know something first, and it is worth capturing without being relied on as if it were confirmed.

Avoid carrying a technical answer from one trade to another in your own words, and ask instead that they be put in touch through your contact.

An answer relayed by an owner loses the qualifications it came with, and the loss is invisible to both sides.

Ask which decisions have to be settled before each trade attends, and record them as a list with the trade they belong to rather than as a general note.

Decisions attached to a trade get made in time; decisions on a general list tend to sit until somebody is waiting.

Write down positions you have chosen for things such as switches, outlets and fittings, and note when and to whom that information was passed.

Position information is given verbally more often than anything else on a project and is the most commonly disputed afterwards.

Note what each trade needs in terms of access, water, power or space to work, and record what you agreed to arrange and what the contractor is arranging.

Assumptions about who is providing basic facilities are made silently by both sides and discovered on the morning somebody arrives.

Record any constraint you have asked to be observed, such as areas to be kept clear or arrangements for pets and children, and who you told.

Constraints told to one trade rarely reach the next one, and repeating them is easier when you know what you said and to whom.

Note the date you provided each piece of information, since a question about waiting on site almost always turns on when something was supplied.

Owners are frequently said to have held things up, and only a dated note shows what was actually provided and when.

Ask at intervals what remains outstanding from you, and keep that list visible rather than assuming you would be told if something were needed.

Requests for owner information are often made once and not repeated, and the site simply works around the gap until it cannot.

Ask which trade work is about to be covered by the next trade, and record what you are told so the sequence is visible in your own notes.

The sequence explains why a later question has to be put to somebody who has already left the property.

Photograph the completed work of one trade before the next covers it, framing it against something permanent so its position can be established later.

This is the only record that will exist of what is behind a finish, and nobody else is likely to take it for you.

Stand only where the site team has asked you to stand, and do not move or disturb anything in order to get a better view.

Note which trade carried out the work in each area before it was covered, so a later question about that area starts with the right party.

Once a wall is closed, working out who did what inside it is almost impossible without a note made at the time.

Ask whether anything needs to be seen by anybody else before an area is covered, and record what you are told without treating it as your responsibility.

Which stages require attention from others before being covered is for the contractor and appointed professionals to arrange and confirm locally.

Note where a following trade appears to have altered the work of the one before, and raise it as a question through your contact rather than as a complaint.

Alterations between trades are normal and coordinated, but the ones that are not tend to surface only when something does not work.

Keep the images of covered work in their own place with a note of the trade and area, rather than mixed in with general progress pictures.

These are the images anybody working on the property in future will want, and they are impossible to find in a large general collection.

Put any question about the arrangements behind a trade to the contractor rather than to the trade themselves, and record the answer you are given.

How trades are engaged and what is required of them is a matter for the contractor; asking a trade directly puts them in an awkward position.

Where you are shown documentation about a trade, note that you were shown it and by whom, and leave any view about what it covers to the contractor.

Whether any registration, qualification or cover is sufficient must be established with the contractor and the relevant bodies, never by an owner reading a document.

Take questions about cover for the work and for your property to your own insurer, and record what you are told separately from the project record.

Insurance arrangements affecting your property are for your own insurer and legal adviser; do not rely on a general assurance given on site.

Keep personal details of individuals out of your record, holding the trade and the contact route rather than names and personal contact information.

A record built around roles rather than individuals stays useful when people change and avoids holding information you have no reason to keep.

Where you ask about arrangements, record what you were told and by whom, without adding your own conclusion about whether it sounded satisfactory.

An owner conclusion recorded next to a factual answer tends to be read later as though somebody qualified had reached it.

Where you want to know what applies to a particular kind of work in your area, confirm that with the relevant local authority rather than relying on site conversation.

What is required locally for any category of work must be confirmed with the relevant authority; accounts given on site are not a substitute.

Ask what is left outstanding when a trade appears to have finished, and record the answer rather than assuming their departure means their part is complete.

Trades commonly leave one element to return for, and that return is the thing most likely to be forgotten by everybody.

Write down anything a trade says they will come back for, with the date they said it, and check it against what actually happens.

Return visits are arranged verbally between trades and the contractor, and the owner note is often the only written trace.

Ask who a question about that part of the work should be put to once the trade has moved on, and record the route as it stands then.

Routes change once a trade leaves, and finding this out in advance saves a slow search at the moment you need an answer.

Where a different trade takes over part of the work, note when the change happened and which parts were carried out by each, as far as you can observe.

Work split between two trades is difficult to trace afterwards, and the boundary between them is exactly where questions arise.

Ask the contractor to confirm which parts each trade carried out rather than relying on your own reading of what you saw happening.

Note anything left in the property by a trade who has finished, including materials and equipment, and ask what should happen to it.

Items left behind become nobody responsibility very quickly, and they are frequently still there at completion.

Ask for the information you will want about that part of the work while the trade is still attending, rather than after the site has been cleared.

Information is easy to obtain while somebody is on the property and disproportionately hard once they have moved on to other work.