Keep five things per job: the signed contract, every invoice, the handover list, the guarantee with whatever stands behind it, and photos of the pipe and cable runs before boarding. Then add the certificate that particular work should have produced, from building control, electrical, gas or window installation. Record it per job below and it stays on this device.
An invoice proves you paid. A certificate proves the work was compliant, and that is the one a buyer, a solicitor or a lender asks about. GOV.UK states the consequence of skipping building regulations approval directly: without it you will not have the certificates of compliance you may need when you want to sell your home. Recording per job which certificate you hold, and which is still outstanding, turns that from a surprise into a short list of phone calls while the trade still remembers your address.
Before the walls close, photograph the pipe and cable runs with the first fix checklist; those photos are the part nobody can recreate afterwards. During the build, every extra belongs in the extras log with a written agreement, because the invoice at the end should hold no surprises. At handover, work through the snagging checklist and get the list signed before the final payment leaves your account.
Most homeowners overestimate the guarantee and underestimate the law, which is why the record asks whether the policy behind yours exists. Guarantees and the rights you already have sets out both layers: what the Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives you in every job, and what a piece of guarantee paper adds on top. If the firm has since disappeared, start at builder gone bust. And if you are unsure which approvals your project needed in the first place, planning permission versus building regulations explains which of the two produces a certificate.
A register of who did each job and which documents you hold: guarantees, certificates, the handover list. Years later it answers in seconds who built what and which paper proves it.
What you enter: Your jobs, companies and which documents you hold. What you get: A complete renovation record on your own device, with the missing papers made visible. Nothing is uploaded.
Five things per job: the signed contract or accepted quote, every invoice including the extras, the signed handover or snagging list, the written guarantee with whatever stands behind it, and photos of the pipe and cable runs taken before the walls closed. On top of that comes the certificate the work itself should have produced, which depends on the trade: building control, electrical, gas or windows.
Work signed off by building control ends in a completion certificate. Work self-certified by an installer registered with a competent person scheme ends in a scheme certificate within 8 weeks of completion, which is your evidence of compliance. Electrical work should give you an Electrical Installation Certificate or Minor Work Certificate to BS 7671 plus a Building Regulations Compliance Certificate. A notifiable gas appliance produces a Building Regulations compliance certificate that should reach the householder within 10 to 15 working days of notification. Replacement windows and doors produce a FENSA certificate, which registers the installation with the local council.
Because the buyer asks for exactly this pile. GOV.UK is blunt about the consequence of skipping approval: without it you will not have the certificates of compliance you may need when you want to sell your home. Sorting it years later, under offer, with the trade long gone, is the expensive version of this page.
Ask in writing, and ask for the certificate by name rather than for paperwork in general. Where the job was self-certified under a competent person scheme, the scheme registered it with your local council, so a record of the work exists outside the company that did it. Where building control was involved, the completion certificate sits with the body that inspected the work.
That depends on who stands behind it. A promise written by the builder is worth what the builder is worth in year six. Scheme guidance describes financial protection whose aim is to cover you if the business ceases trading, so note in the record whether your guarantee is insurance-backed, and keep the policy rather than only the certificate. Your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 sit underneath it either way.
No. The record holds which documents you have, not the documents themselves, and it stays in this browser. There is no account and no upload, and the text file is put together in your browser when you ask for it.