What is a building logbook?

A concise operating record for a non-domestic building, handed over on completion, describing the building and its services, the design intent, the metering and energy strategy, commissioning results and maintenance requirements. Approved Document L expects it to be provided at handover, and CIBSE TM31 is the toolkit most design teams follow.

Is a building logbook a legal requirement?

Approved Document L expects the information to be provided to the owner at handover for new and refurbished non-domestic buildings, so in practice it is required for building regulations compliance. It is not the same as the golden thread, which is a statutory duty under the Building Safety Act 2022 and applies only to higher-risk buildings.

What is the difference between a building logbook and O&M manuals?

The O&M manuals are the full technical detail, often many volumes. The logbook is the short operating summary that lets someone understand how the building is meant to run without reading all of it. The logbook points to the manuals; it does not replace them, and combining them makes both less useful.

Who is responsible for producing the building logbook?

It is compiled by the design team and principal contractor and handed to the building owner or operator at completion. The lead designer normally coordinates it, because the content comes from several disciplines. Starting it at the beginning of the job rather than the end is the single biggest determinant of whether it is any good.

Logbook · publication

Free Building Logbook Template (UK): Part L Handover, PDF & Excel

The Part L handover record, structured as a contents register so the gaps are visible before practical completion rather than after it.

The building logbook is the one handover document that is nearly always compiled in the final fortnight, from whatever the design team can still find. That is why so many buildings are operated for years against assumptions nobody wrote down. This template turns it into a contents register you populate as the work completes, so the gaps are visible in month six rather than at practical completion.

↓ Download PDF (print-ready)↓ Download Excel (editable)

Free for use within your organisation. No sign-up required. If it saves you time, a link back to this page is always appreciated.

Tell me when the rules behind this template change (free, one email when it happens, nothing else).

What a building logbook actually is

It is the short operating summary of a non-domestic building: what was installed, how it is meant to run, what it should consume and how it is metered. Approved Document L expects this information to be provided to the building owner at handover so the building can be operated efficiently, and CIBSE TM31, the Building Log Book Toolkit, is the format most design teams work to.

It is deliberately not the operation and maintenance manuals. The O&M manuals are the technical detail, often running to many volumes. The logbook is the document a new facilities manager can read in an afternoon and understand how the building is supposed to behave. Merging the two defeats the purpose of having either.

What's in the template

Contents register: 18 prescribed sections from building details and design intent through services, metering strategy, commissioning records, air permeability results, maintenance strategy and key contacts, each with who provides it, whether it is present, where it is held and the date received
Log of changes: the sheet that keeps the logbook true after handover, recording what changed, which system it affected, why, and which sections were updated

How to use it

Issue the contents register to the design team and the principal contractor at the start of the job, not at the end. Each row has a named provider, so at every progress meeting the register tells you exactly who owes what. Sections arriving late are almost always commissioning records, air permeability results and the metering schedule, because they depend on work finishing.

After handover, the change log is what stops the logbook going stale. Every plant replacement, control strategy change or change of use should generate an entry and an update to the relevant section. A logbook that has never been updated since handover tells a prospective purchaser or an incoming FM that nobody has been managing the building.

Related records that sit alongside it: the CDM 2015 pre-construction information pack and the health and safety file, electrical installation condition reports, and the fire safety logbook.

Who must keep this record

In practice the building owner or operator holds it, and the design team and principal contractor compile it. Approved Document L addresses the provision of the information at handover, so the obligation lands on the project rather than on the eventual occupier. Where a building is sold or let, the logbook should travel with it: an incoming owner who has to reverse engineer the design intent from the plant itself is starting from a very expensive position.

For a higher-risk building there is a separate and much heavier duty on top of this. See the golden thread information register, which is a statutory requirement under the Building Safety Act 2022 rather than a handover convention.

How long to keep it

For the life of the building, updated as it changes. Unlike a dated inspection record there is no retention period to run down, because the logbook is a living description of how the building works. Keep superseded versions rather than overwriting them, so that a control strategy that was changed three years ago can still be understood.