Utility Isolation Questions Checklist

Walk the property and note where each meter, box, cupboard or entry point sits, including anything in an outbuilding, a cellar or a shared area.

Nobody can plan an interruption around positions that have not been found, and owners often do not know where all of theirs are.

Photograph each position and note how it is reached, including whether a cupboard is locked, blocked by furniture or accessible only from outside.

Access to these positions is needed at short notice, and a photograph with a note of the route saves considerable time later.

Note the control positions you can see for each supply, without operating, testing or moving any of them.

Recording where something is is entirely different from working out what it does, and only the first belongs to the owner.

Never operate, test or open anything associated with a supply. Ask a qualified professional or the relevant provider what each control is.

Note where a supply, drain, meter cupboard or stop position appears to serve more than one property, and mark that as a question rather than a fact.

Shared arrangements are common in terraces, conversions and flats, and interrupting one can affect a household you have never spoken to.

Anything that may be shared must be established by the relevant service provider or a qualified professional before any work is planned around it.

Note which of these positions sit in or beside the area being worked on, and raise each of those before any programme is settled.

A meter or entry point inside a work area usually has to be dealt with by the provider rather than by whoever is on site.

Gather any documents you already hold about the services at the property, including previous installation papers, service records and provider correspondence.

These documents answer questions that would otherwise take an investigation, and they are usually filed somewhere the owner has forgotten.

List what in the household depends on each supply, working room by room rather than trying to remember it in the abstract.

Owners think of heating and lighting and forget refrigeration, hot water, a boiler control, a doorbell or a broadband connection.

Note whether anyone in the household relies on equipment or arrangements that depend on a supply, and raise that with the relevant provider directly.

Providers usually have arrangements for households in this position, and those arrangements need setting up before an interruption.

Speak to the relevant service provider and any medical or care professional involved. Never plan an interruption around an assumption here.

Ask what else stops working when a particular supply is interrupted, since one interruption often takes several things with it.

Heating, hot water and cooking are frequently linked in ways owners only discover on the day one of them is turned off.

Decide whether the household can remain at the property during each interruption, and record what would make staying impractical.

Deciding in advance is far better than making the decision at the end of a working day with nothing running.

Plan what happens to refrigerated and frozen food during any interruption to power, and decide where it goes rather than hoping it will hold.

This is the loss most commonly overlooked and the one that is entirely avoidable with a little notice.

Note what will need resetting once a supply returns, such as heating controls, timers, a boiler, an alarm or a network connection.

The return of a supply is not the return of a working household, and the resetting is usually left to the owner.

Ask, for each supply, who arranges the interruption, who carries it out and how much notice the provider or installer needs.

The arrangement differs by supply, and it is the difference between a planned interruption and an unplanned one.

Who may work on any supply is determined by the relevant provider and by qualified professionals. Never arrange it on the basis of convenience.

Ask which parts of the work only the service provider can attend to, and which parts an installer at the property would deal with.

The boundary between the provider and the installer is a frequent source of delay because nobody established it early enough.

Ask how you will be told before a supply is interrupted, and agree that nothing is turned off without the household being told first.

Unannounced interruptions cause more friction between owners and working teams than almost anything else.

Ask what happens where a supply is being removed rather than interrupted, and what should be left in place afterwards.

Removal and interruption are different, and the difference matters for anything you might want in that position later.

Capping, disconnection and removal of any supply are matters for qualified professionals and the relevant provider in every case.

Agree that nobody in the household operates any control, valve or switch connected with the work, and pass that on to everyone living there.

Well-meant intervention by a household member is a recognised cause of trouble on a working property.

Only qualified people should operate anything associated with a supply. This applies to the household throughout the work.

Ask what happens if work on a supply is not completed when expected, and who arranges for the household to manage until it is.

An interruption that lasts longer than intended is common, and the fallback is only useful if it was agreed beforehand.

Ask what the work itself needs by way of power, lighting and water, and where those would be taken from at the property.

This is agreed informally on the first morning far more often than it is discussed, and it is easier settled in advance.

Agree in writing whose supply is used for tools, lighting and cleaning, and record what was agreed with whoever runs the work.

An unrecorded arrangement becomes an awkward conversation later, particularly on a long project.

Note where an outside tap and an accessible external power position are, and ask whether either is affected by the work being planned.

These are the positions a working team will use, and they are frequently the first things taken out of service.

Ask what lighting will be used in areas where the permanent arrangement has been taken out, and how that is dealt with outside working periods.

Temporary lighting is set up quickly and left in place for far longer than intended, including where the household still walks.

Temporary electrical arrangements are entirely a matter for qualified professionals. Never move, extend or reposition anything yourself.

Ask what happens to heating and hot water while the work continues, particularly where the household remains at the property throughout.

Heating is the interruption households feel most and the one most often assumed to be brief.

Ask whether any drying or heating equipment will be run at the property, where it would be plugged in and whether it runs unattended.

Equipment running outside working periods raises questions for both the household and the insurer that are best asked in advance.

Ask your insurer and a qualified professional about any equipment left running at the property outside working periods.

Ask what arrangements exist for toilets and washing at the property while drainage or water is interrupted, for the household and for the working team.

This is settled by default within hours of work starting if nobody raises it beforehand.

Ask what is done where a drain or waste connection is left open inside the property, and who checks it at the end of a working session.

An open connection inside a building raises questions about smell and about what can travel back along it.

How any open drain or waste connection should be dealt with is entirely a matter for qualified professionals, never for the household.

Note where rainwater currently goes from the roof and the surfaces around the building, and ask what happens to it while those are disturbed.

Water finds a new route within one heavy rainfall, and the new route is frequently into the building or a neighbour's ground.

Ask what arrangements are made to keep material, dust and washings out of the drainage, and who is responsible for that during the work.

Material entering a drain causes a problem that surfaces long after everyone has left the property.

What may enter any drain is governed locally and by the relevant provider. Confirm with them rather than assuming anything is acceptable.

Note which drainage covers and chambers must stay reachable during the work, and check that stored material and vehicles do not sit on them.

Covers get buried under stored material precisely when access to them becomes necessary.

Ask who attends if drainage backs up or a smell appears during the work, and how that reaches them outside working periods.

A drainage problem in an occupied property needs an answer immediately, not a discussion about whose responsibility it is.

Ask who obtains service records from the relevant providers before anything is opened up or dug, and what those records are expected to show.

Obtaining records is a defined task that falls between parties unless somebody is named as responsible for it.

Write down anything you believe about where pipes, cables or drains run at the property, and label each of those as belief rather than fact.

Owner knowledge is genuinely useful to a professional, provided it is clearly separated from what has actually been established.

Nothing an owner believes about a hidden service should be relied on. Establishing what is there is a matter for qualified professionals.

Note anything that appears disused, such as a capped pipe, an old meter box or a redundant cable, and leave it exactly as it is.

Apparently disused services are regularly found to be live, and their appearance tells nobody anything reliable.

Never assume anything is disused, and never cut, move or remove it. Ask a qualified professional and the relevant provider to establish it.

Ask what is done to establish what lies behind a wall, under a floor or below ground before anything is cut, chased or excavated.

This is a standard part of careful work, and asking about it early tells you a good deal about how the work will be run.

Agree that work stops and a qualified professional is contacted if any unexpected pipe, cable or connection is uncovered during the work.

An agreed stopping rule is far better than a decision made on the spot by whoever is holding the tool.

Any unexpected service must be left untouched and referred to a qualified professional or the relevant provider before work continues.

Write down the emergency contact route for each service provider and keep it where everyone at the property can find it.

The moment this is needed is not the moment to start looking for the number.

Any suspected leak, smell, exposed cable or damaged service is an emergency matter for the relevant provider and must be reported immediately.

Ask who restores each supply, in what order, and what has to be completed before each of them can be brought back.

Reconnection often depends on other work being finished, which is why supplies come back later than owners expect.

Ask what has to happen before appliances, heating or water are used again, and agree that nobody in the household starts using them before then.

The gap between a supply being available and the property being ready to use it is the point where mistakes happen.

Only a qualified professional can say when anything may be used again. Never restore or start using a supply on the household's own judgement.

Ask what documentation, records or instructions you will be given relating to work on the services, and who provides each of them.

These papers are much harder to obtain once everyone has left the property, and they matter when the property is sold or worked on again.

Update your record of where each supply is controlled once the work is finished, since positions frequently move during a project.

An out-of-date record of shut-off positions is worse than none, because it will be relied on in a hurry.

Make sure everyone in the household knows where the current positions are and who to call, rather than that knowledge sitting with one person.

The person who knows is regularly the person who is out when it matters.

Ask what has been left capped, disconnected or redundant within the building, and where each of those positions is, then add it to your record.

Redundant services left in place are a problem for the next piece of work unless somebody wrote down where they are.