Solar Handover Checklist: What You Should Receive When the Job Is Done

The installation is the part everybody thinks about. The handover is the part that decides what happens in year three, and it is routinely skipped — not out of dishonesty, but because the crew has finished and the next job is waiting.

Here is everything you should have in your hands before you make the final payment.

The documents

Two of those deserve particular attention, because they are the ones most often missing.

Earthing test readings

Earthing is installed, and then it should be measured, and the measured value written down and handed over. A system where nobody can tell you the earth resistance reading is a system where nobody measured it, which means nobody actually knows whether the earthing works. On a rooftop DC installation in a country with this much lightning activity, that is not a paperwork detail.

Warranty registration

Module and inverter warranties usually require registration against the installation. It is a five-minute job that is frequently never done, and nobody discovers it until there is a claim four years later. Ask for evidence that it has been completed, in your name.

The demonstration

Paper is half of it. Before the crew leaves, somebody should physically walk you through the following.

• Every isolation point. DC isolator, AC isolator, the main breaker, and the battery isolation if you have storage. You should be able to shut the system down safely without calling anyone.
• What the inverter is telling you. Normal operation, and what the common fault indications mean.
• The monitoring app. Logged in on your phone, on your account, before anyone leaves.
• What to do first if it stops. A short sequence, and a named person to call — not a general helpline number.
• Where not to walk. On the roof, on the modules, and around the array.

If nobody shows you the isolation points, the handover was incomplete regardless of how neat the installation looks in photographs.

What to check on the roof before signing off

• Clamps tight and correctly positioned on the module frames, not improvised
• Cable properly supported and secured in conduit or trunking, not resting on the roof surface or draped over modules
• No cable in contact with sharp edges, and no bare site-cut edges left unprotected on galvanised steel
• Structure bolts tight, with the fastener types the specification called for
• Walkway space between rows that a person can actually use to clean the array — which matters more here than most places, as the dust figures show
• Penetrations properly sealed, and the roof left as watertight as it was found

Take photographs of the finished array and the electrical work yourself. In three years, when something needs attention, you will be glad to have a record of how it was handed over.

Hold the final payment until it is complete

This is the single most useful piece of practical advice on this page. A retention against handover is normal commercial practice and no reputable installer will object to it. It is also the only leverage you have to get documents that are otherwise easy to postpone indefinitely.

Agree the handover list at the time of the quotation, not at the end. That way it is a contractual expectation rather than an awkward conversation on the last day — one of the reasons we suggest asking about it among the twelve questions.

Handover: questions people actually ask

The bottom line

A good installation and a good handover are two different things, and you can get the first without the second. Agree the list up front, hold a retention against it, and walk the roof before you sign off. Twenty minutes on the last day saves a great deal of difficulty later.