Handover & Commissioning
Is Your Network Really Ready for Handover?
Many performance issues only emerge after handover, when contractual leverage has reduced and remediation costs sit with the asset owner. Once the defects period closes, you lose the opportunity to hold contractors accountable for permanent, unresolved issues, and fixing poorly specified or installed networks post-handover is costly and often unfeasible.
Handover & Commissioning is built to catch and resolve exactly these issues before that window shuts. It tests and reconciles the network’s actual performance against your original specification while you still have contractual leverage to get problems fixed, rather than after the defects period has closed.
Testing and documentation before sign-off
What's Included
Handover & Commissioning checks the network performs as promised before you sign off. Here’s what’s covered:
- Acceptance testing
- Commissioning compliance checks
- O&M manual review
- Performance gap reconciliation against the original specification and performance requirements
For anyone approaching handover
Who This Is For
Property & Residential Developers
You’re approaching practical completion and need assurance before sign-off.
Housing Associations & Local Authorities
You’re taking handover of a network and want issues resolved while there’s still contractual leverage.
Heat Network Operators
You need confidence the network performs as designed before taking on day-to-day responsibility.
Common questions
FAQs
Here’s what clients most often ask as they approach practical completion.
Why does handover matter so much for a heat network?
Once the defects period closes, the opportunity to hold contractors accountable for unresolved issues is lost. Handover & Commissioning is built to identify and resolve issues while that leverage still exists.
What if we're already near the end of our defects period?
This is when speed matters most. A full review against the original specification can still be completed before the defects period closes, with issues resolved as a condition of final payment to the contractor — get in touch as soon as possible so there’s time to do that.
This is exactly the situation where Uniti supported Aster Group at Grace House: a full review of the heat network against the original specification, conducted before the defects period closed, with all identified issues resolved as a condition of final payment to the contractor.
What's included in an O&M manual review?
It forms part of Handover & Commissioning, checking that operations and maintenance documentation is complete and accurate ahead of the network moving into operational use.
What happens after this stage?
Handover & Commissioning connects directly into Operations & Maintenance, so performance can continue to be monitored once the network is live.
GET IN TOUCH
Don't miss the defects window
Get in touch before your defects period closes and let’s review where things stand.