Waiver, refusal, disclaimer: the three documents that protect the contractor
On a new-build site, the proof of the work done is the building itself. In an occupied building, the proof is a piece of paper, because six months later nobody will remember whether dwelling A12 refused its new taps or simply never opened up.
This article is part of the guide
Works in occupied buildingsThree outcomes, and only three
A crew enters a dwelling and there are only three possible endings. The work is done and the tenant acknowledges it: that is the waiver. The tenant does not want the work, in whole or in part: that is the refusal. The work cannot be done because the room has not been cleared and the tenant asks the contractor to work around the furniture anyway: that is the disclaimer.
Everything else, closed door, absence, postponed appointment, is not a visit: it is a missed access, and it is recorded in the schedule, not in a signed document.
The waiver: what was done, not what was planned
The waiver lists the work actually carried out that day in that dwelling, trade by trade. It carries the date, the occupant's name, the dwelling number, the site manager's name, and two signatures.
The common mistake is to copy the contract line instead of describing what was done. If the electrician was to fit six sockets and only fitted four, for want of access behind the sideboard, then four is what must appear, with a note about the two outstanding. A waiver that says six will be contradicted by the first inspection and will cast doubt on all the others.
The refusal: say what, and say why
A tenant has the right to refuse work that is not compulsory under the programme: keeping the existing tiles, turning down the new taps. That refusal is only a problem if it is not written down.
The document must name the refused item, not the whole trade package, and carry the reason in the tenant's own words. "Refusal of the living room vinyl flooring replacement, furniture too heavy to move" is worth a thousand times more than "refusal, flooring package". A year later, that reason tells the client why dwelling A12 does not have the same floor as the others, and spares the contractor being taken to task over work it was never able to carry out.
The disclaimer: working around the furniture, but not blind
The case is common: the letter asked for the room to be cleared, the tenant has moved nothing, and there they are, in a hurry, asking you to go ahead anyway. Refusing loses the access; accepting with nothing in writing puts the risk of the scratched sideboard on the contractor.
The disclaimer names the furniture left in place and says who moved it, if anyone did. Two photos before the work are worth all the text in the world: they show the condition of the piece and where it stood. It is a short document, but it is signed before starting, not after the scratch has been noticed.
Sign on the spot, and know where the paper goes
All three documents carry two signatures: the tenant's and the site manager's. A missing signature voids the document, and a signature collected the next day voids its credibility.
On a tablet, the signature is drawn with a finger and the PDF goes out by email before the crew has left the landing. The tenant keeps a copy, the contractor keeps one, the client gets the summary. In the site tracking module, the document is attached to the schedule cell that produced it: reopening dwelling A12 six months later shows the date, the trade, the photo and the signed document, with no filing cabinet to search.
These three documents are not paperwork, they are the only trace of what happened behind a closed door. They cost two minutes each on the landing and save weeks at final account time. The site tracking module produces them from the schedule cell, with both signatures and the photos, and keeps them with the dwelling rather than in a filing cabinet.