March 7, 2003—A recently published BRE Digest from Building Research Establishment (BRE) describes a new protocol for preparing and handing over a building and its documentation, which has been developed to deal with the many shortcomings of current handover practice in the UK.
“Building handover should not be seen simply as passing insurance liabilities from the contractor to the building’s new owners, or providing information and details to the building’s user,” says Hilary Graves of BRE, one of the Digest’s authors. “It should be seen as a process that starts at the tendering stage and continues through to a period after practical completion.”
When a building is not properly handed over, it is likely to be used inappropriately and inefficiently, leading, for example, to dissatisfaction among its users and wasted energy resources. The new Handover of Office Building Operations (HOBO) protocol encourages handover to be seen as a process of many activities, with emphasis on information exchange, training, demonstration, and fine-tuning.
The protocol was developed in a two-year project, under the Partners in Innovation Programme, to develop a workable and acceptable means of handing over new office buildings, and of handing over existing buildings to new owners and operators. The project used case studies of buildings representing a range of building types, clients, and suppliers, to establish current practice and the areas needing improvement. A draft protocol was tested, revised, and then trialed by partner organizations on “live” projects.
BRE Digest 474, HOBO protocol – Handover of Office Building Operations, is available from BRE Bookshop, tel. 020 7505 6622. BRE is owned by the Foundation for the Built Environment.
