New Service Connection Application Preparation Checklist

Write a single list of every supply and connection the finished building would need, including anything the existing property already has.

One list in one place is what reveals the overlaps and the gaps that several separate conversations never surface.

Mark each item as a new connection, an alteration to an existing one, a relocation or a disconnection, since providers treat these differently.

These are separate processes with separate routes through a provider, and mixing them up delays everything.

Ask whoever is designing the building what each supply is assumed to need, and record it as their statement rather than your estimate.

Providers ask this question first, and an owner guessing at it is the commonest cause of an application having to be redone.

What any supply needs is established by qualified professionals and confirmed with the provider. Nothing here determines it.

Note what already serves the property, where each supply enters, and photograph every meter, box and entry point you can find.

Existing entries are the starting point for most applications, and owners frequently do not know where all of theirs are.

Ask whether any existing connection could be reused, altered or has to be replaced, and record what you were told and by whom.

An answer from the provider on this point is what an application rests on, and an assumption is what delays one.

Note anything that has to be disconnected or removed, and treat each of those as its own application with its own timescale.

Disconnections are routinely forgotten until they block demolition or excavation, at which point they are urgent.

Contact each provider and ask what their application requires, then write their answer down as their list rather than a general one.

Requirements differ between providers and change over time, which is why only the provider can state them.

What any provider requires is confirmed with that provider directly. No checklist can state it on your behalf.

Ask what drawings or plans each provider needs, in what form, at what stage of their process, and who is expected to produce them.

Applications commonly stall because a drawing exists in a form that does not suit that particular provider's process.

Ask what each provider needs by way of evidence about ownership or rights over the land the route crosses.

This is the requirement owners are least prepared for and the one that takes longest to satisfy once raised.

Ask whether the application must come from you as the owner or may be made by a professional or contractor acting for you.

Who applies affects who receives the correspondence, and correspondence going to the wrong party is a common delay.

Record the reference number, the named contact and the date for every application, and keep them together in one list.

Several concurrent applications with different providers becomes unmanageable without a single list of references.

Ask what happens after submission, what the next step is, and what would be asked of you at each stage.

Knowing the shape of the process lets an owner chase the right thing at the right time rather than chasing generally.

Walk from the road to where each supply would enter the building, and sketch the likely route with the distances described in observable terms.

A sketch walked on the ground finds obstacles that a route drawn on a plan simply passes through.

Note what the route crosses on your own land, including a drive, a path, a terrace, planting, a lawn and any structure.

What a trench crosses decides what has to be taken up and put back, which is the part owners meet afterwards.

Mark everything you already know to be buried along the route, including drainage, an old supply, a soakaway or a former tank.

Owner knowledge is the only source for a great deal of this, and it belongs in the record before anyone digs.

Never assume what is buried along a route. Locating existing services is work for qualified people with the right equipment.

Note any tree, hedge or established planting the route would pass near, and identify each one rather than describing it generally.

Trees may be protected in ways an owner does not know about, and a route near one is a question rather than a detail.

Ask where each supply is intended to enter the building, and whether the meter or control would be inside, outside or in an enclosure.

Entry positions affect the internal layout and are frequently settled late by whoever happens to be installing.

Ask whether several services can share one trench or route, and what each provider says about that, recording each answer separately.

Whether routes can be shared is decided by the providers, and assuming it is the origin of a good deal of rework.

Mark on the sketch the exact point where the route would leave land you own, and note who you believe holds each stretch beyond it.

This single point is where the application stops being a technical process and becomes a matter of rights.

Whether a right exists to lay a service across land you do not own is a question for a suitably qualified adviser.

Ask each provider what they require where a route crosses land in other ownership, and record their answer in their own terms.

Providers have established processes for this, and knowing the process early is what stops it becoming a surprise.

Where a route would cross a neighbour's land, raise it with them as an open question early, before the design depends on the answer.

A request arriving after an application has been made reads as a formality, which is not how a neighbour will hear it.

Ask who deals with working in the road or the pavement, whether the provider handles it, and what the owner has to do.

Highway work usually belongs to the provider, but owners are often left assuming somebody else has arranged it.

Ask the relevant local authority what applies to work in the highway outside your property, and record what you were told and when.

Rules for occupying and opening a public surface vary between localities and can only be confirmed directly.

Note where a route would cross a shared drive, private lane or communal area, and list every party who would have an interest.

Shared surfaces have several interested parties, and finding out who they are takes longer than anyone expects.

Ask, stretch by stretch, who excavates, who lays, who connects and who backfills, and write the answers into one table.

The handover points between parties are where responsibility gets lost, and a table makes each of them visible.

Ask what you as the owner are expected to have done before the provider attends, and get that requirement in writing.

A provider attending and finding the site not ready is a wasted visit that can be rebooked weeks later.

Ask who reinstates each surface the route crosses, to what standard, and whether that is a temporary or a final reinstatement.

Temporary reinstatement is normal in a highway and unwelcome news to an owner who expected a finished surface.

Ask specifically about your own drive, path and lawn, and who is responsible for putting each of them back.

Reinstatement inside a property boundary is frequently nobody's explicit responsibility until it is asked about.

Photograph every surface the route crosses before anything is dug, including the public footway, and keep the images dated.

A dated record made beforehand is the only practical way to discuss reinstatement quality afterwards.

Ask what happens if something unexpected is found in a trench, who decides, and how that would reach you.

Trenches routinely find things nobody knew about, and knowing the process avoids a stoppage becoming a standoff.

Ask each provider how long their process typically takes from application to connection, and record the answer as theirs, with the date.

Provider timescales vary and change, so an answer with a date attached is far more useful than a general expectation.

Put the answers side by side and identify which connection has the longest process, since that is the one shaping the programme.

The longest application is the real start date for a project, and it is usually identified far too late.

Ask what has to be in place before an application can even be made, such as a design, a drawing, an approval or evidence of ownership.

The prerequisites are frequently the longest part, and they sit before the timescale the provider quoted.

Ask whoever is running the work which activities cannot happen until each connection exists, and write that list down.

Turning connections into a list of blocked activities is what makes their urgency visible to everyone involved.

Agree who chases each application, how often, and how progress reaches you, and write that down rather than assuming it.

Applications that nobody is explicitly chasing sit still, and owners are usually the only party with an interest in every one.

Keep one list showing each application, its reference, its provider, its status and the date you last heard anything.

A single status list is the entire management system this subject needs, and almost nobody makes one.

Photograph every open trench before it is backfilled, with something identifiable in shot, and note where each photograph was taken.

This is the only opportunity to record what was actually laid and where, and it lasts a matter of hours.

Ask each provider and each contractor for a record of where the service was laid, and keep them all together in one place.

These records exist but are rarely passed on unless somebody asks for them at the time.

Mark every service route on a single plan of the property, measured from permanent features rather than from temporary site marks.

A route measured from a fence that later gets replaced is a route nobody can find again.

Record where every stopcock, valve, isolation point and meter ended up, and make sure the household knows where each of them is.

These are needed urgently and rarely, which is exactly the combination that makes a written record valuable.

Keep every piece of paperwork from each connection together with the property records rather than with the project file.

The project file gets archived, and this paperwork is asked for at sale and whenever anything further is dug.

Make sure this record passes with the property, since the next owner will otherwise be digging blind in the same ground.

Buried service records outlive every project, and their whole value is in being handed on.