Ask for the source files
A handover should include the agreed custom HTML, CSS and JavaScript, or the source for the stack selected in the proposal. A deployed website alone is not a complete handover. Ask which files are editable and how they relate to the live site.
Keep accounts under your control
Your domain and hosting accounts should be available to you. Where an external commerce or email service is required, record the account owner and who can administer it. Avoid sharing passwords in handover documents; use secure account invitations where supported.
Understand the licences
Custom work and third-party assets are different. Fonts, photographs, libraries and hosted services can retain separate licence terms. A useful handover identifies those dependencies and any costs or restrictions. Source ownership does not cancel a third-party licence.
Receive the operating notes
Request deployment steps, a list of services, content-editing instructions and the agreed checks. For static files, instructions can be short. For a store, the notes also need to describe product updates, checkout dependencies and where orders are managed.
Record the support boundary
Agree the period and process for correcting defects against the approved scope. New content, new features and maintenance should have their own arrangements. Pellamant records handover and payment conditions in the project proposal so they can be reviewed before work starts.