Guide · Construction
The four chapters (A–D) of the Romanian as-built file, who is responsible for each, what is usually missing at handover and how to build it as you go.
In short
Updated September 2026 · 8 min
Two weeks before handover, someone in the office is searching email for declarations of performance for materials installed a year ago. At the MEP (mechanical, electrical and plumbing) contractors we work with, chapter B is an export from the construction flow: what was approved along the way is what handover requires. This guide covers what the as-built file contains, who is responsible for each chapter, what is usually missing at handover and how it is built as you go.
The as-built file is the set of documents on design, execution, acceptance and operation; each is produced anyway, the only question is where it lands. It is not an archive box filled in for form's sake: it is the document that shows, ten years later, what went into a wall and who signed for it.
The obligation comes from Law 10/1995 on quality in construction: an as-built file for every building, kept by the owner for as long as the building exists. The structure, the chapters and what goes into each, is set by Government Decision 273/1994 on the acceptance of construction works, amended among others by Government Decision 343/2017. The regulation says what is handed over; it does not say how it is gathered, and that is where handover goes wrong.
A proces-verbal (a formal signed record), a declaration of performance, a material approval packet: each is a piece of the file, produced anyway during the works. The difference between a quiet handover and one full of calls to suppliers is whether the pieces were filed as they appeared. Three common confusions make that difference expensive.
| What people think | What it actually is | |
|---|---|---|
| When it is made | A dossier put together at the end | A record kept along the way |
| Whose obligation it is | The contractor | The investor, with documents from the designer and the contractor |
| What happens afterwards | Handed over and forgotten | Stays with the owner for as long as the building exists |
Chapters A and B close with the works, C at handover, D stays open for the life of the building, each under a different party. Chapter D is the only one that keeps growing for years, with every intervention on the building.
| Chapter | What it contains | Who is responsible |
|---|---|---|
| A. Design | Detailed design documentation, building permit, approvals, technical reports, drawings, changes approved along the way | The designer, under the client's care |
| B. Execution | Hidden-works reports and hold-point records, certificates and declarations of performance, technical agreements, material approval packets, the site diary, the as-built drawings | The contractor |
| C. Acceptance | The completion acceptance record with its annexes, the final acceptance record | The acceptance committee, under the client's care |
| D. Operation | Operating and maintenance instructions, the events log, the in-service monitoring records, later interventions | The owner or the building manager |
Responsibility for preparing the file lies with the investor or the client. They do not produce the documents themselves: the designer produces chapter A and the contractor produces chapter B, each for their own part. The diriginte de șantier (the client's site supervisor) checks along the way that the documents are produced on time and signed by all parties.
For an MEP subcontractor, almost everything produced lands in chapter B. That is where the hidden-works reports for buried runs sit, with the declarations of performance for the installed materials. It is also where the material approval packets signed by the supervisor, the designer and the client end up.
At the completion acceptance, the committee does not only inspect the works; it also checks whether the documents describing them exist. If they do not, the acceptance is postponed or the gaps are recorded with a deadline for remedy. Here is what that file looks like on an MEP project:
What is usually missing at handover is a declaration of performance for a material installed a year ago, an approved packet version, a signature. Five gaps come up at almost every contractor, in the order in which they hurt.
None of this means the work is poor. It means the record fell behind the execution. The cost is paid at the end, in days spent searching through email and in conversations with the client about what can be certified for payment, and when.
Hence a simple rule of organisation: whoever signs a document is also the one who files it, in the same place, at the moment of signing. Whoever signs, files.
There is a single rule: a document enters the as-built file the moment it is approved, not at handover, and chapter B becomes an export. Everything else follows from it.
Every document has a natural moment when it appears and a person who signs it. The rule only asks that at that moment it is also filed in the as-built file, not in a mailbox. For that, every piece needs a hook in the record: the product in the library, the item in the bill of quantities or the execution stage.
What is missing shows up during the works, while the supplier still answers and the team is still on site, not two weeks before handover. The difference is not in the documents, which are the same, but in the moment you learn they are missing.
Reconstructed at handover
Built as you go
At an MEP contractor, approved MAF packets are linked to the bill-of-quantities item and to the installed product; handover becomes an export. The flow runs at a contractor with over 100 employees, on the same case from which material approval is done.
The technical office approves the MAF packet once; at the moment of signature, the approved version enters chapter B of the project, with the date and the approvers beside it. When the product from the quote is substituted with another, the new data sheet replaces the old version in the file, not just in email. Upstream, the same item codes come from quoting from the bill of quantities, so an item has a continuous trail: quoted, approved, installed, documented.
Hidden-works reports are generated from the execution stages and signed at the time, by all parties, with the signature visible in the record. At handover, the documentation lead picks the project and exports chapter B; whatever is marked missing is the work to do, not a surprise. See the flow on the Construction page or how the platform is built, if the technical side interests you.
A record kept along the way makes sense when there are dozens of documents and several signing parties; in three situations it changes nothing.
Decide, for each type of document, who files it at signing and where; it is a one-hour decision that changes the next handover. The pieces of chapter B come from material approval: the guide to the MAF packet shows the circuit the approved versions come out of.
Before handover
The owner. Law 10/1995 places its safekeeping and completion with the owner for the whole life of the building, and on every change of ownership the file is passed to the new owner. The contractor and the designer keep their own documents as well, under their own archiving obligations.
Yes. What is required is the content, not the medium: the signed documents must exist, be complete and be producible on request. In practice the version that works is an electronic record kept along the way, with the signed originals held wherever paper is required. Always check the contract too: some specifications explicitly require a printed copy handed over at completion.
Acceptance cannot be completed on documents that do not exist. Depending on what is missing, the committee postpones the acceptance until the file is completed, or accepts it while recording the gaps and a deadline for remedy. In both cases the project stays open, and final payment and the release of the performance guarantee are pushed back.
The first conversation is about your process: who does what, on which documents, where time is lost.
One email a month, only when we publish. Nothing else.
Material approval (MAF / submittals): what the packet contains, the technical office → supervisor → designer → client circuit and where time is lost.
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