When a nanny or housekeeper leaves: a handover checklist
When someone leaves after three years in your home, there are three years of practical knowledge to pass on. Keys need returning, access needs updating and household expense funds need reconciling. Missing details often surface later: when the alarm goes off at seven in the morning, or when the school asks who is collecting your child.
The same list works whether the parting is friendly or sudden.
1. As soon as you know the date
- Set the last working day and, if you can, one or two days of overlap with the next person.
- Ask one question: “What would you tell the next person on their first day?” Ten minutes over coffee can tell you more than a form.
- Write the answers into your house rules, not into a chat.
2. Collect what only they know
- Children: routines, allergies, foods, who may collect them, school and activity contacts.
- House: alarm, stopcock, fuse box, boiler, pool; which products go on which surface; the door that sticks.
- Suppliers: plumber, electrician, deliveries, shop accounts. These numbers are often only on their phone.
- Car and pets: service dates, where the documents are, feeding, the vet.
- This week: open tasks, what has been ordered, what is due, what was promised to whom.
3. Keys, codes and access
- Collect keys, fobs, the garage remote, cards, the fuel card.
- When the job ends, change the codes and passwords they had access to: alarm, gate, door, Wi-Fi.
- On the last day, take them out of group chats, shared calendars and apps.
- Share sensitive information and access codes only with people who need them for their work.
4. Settle money in two separate lines
- Household money: reconcile the funds received, recorded household expenses and any money already returned. Resolve missing receipts separately, and identify any expenses paid from the worker's own money that need reimbursement.
- Final pay: the pay due up to the end of employment, plus any other amounts required by local rules. Account for wage advances already paid without counting them twice. See how to pay a nanny or housekeeper.
- You both see the sum, in writing.
5. Use the overlap
The person leaving shows the person arriving: room by room, then the routines. The new person asks. You listen and add to the rules whatever was not written down.
6. If someone leaves suddenly
- Access first: alarm and door codes today.
- Then today's duties: the school run, the pets, whatever cannot wait.
- Then open tasks: give each one to someone, or cancel it.
- Ask politely whether they would be willing to answer a few questions by phone later.
7. The next person's first week
Do not hand over a stack of paper on day one. Our first-day checklist covers what to show and when. Ask them to confirm they have read the rules, and give specific tasks with a clear result.
8. Part well
Say thank you and give an honest reference. People who work in homes talk to each other, and your next hire will ask about you too.
This guide is about organising the transition. Notice periods, final pay and references for household staff depend on your country — check the local rules or ask an adviser.
In Domiq, instructions belong to the home, car, child or pet, not to the person, so they stay when someone leaves. Once invited and given access, new staff can read the relevant instructions and confirm they have read them; the app is available in English, Spanish and Russian. Creating new instructions is available on the Home plan and above. When you end someone's employment, you see in advance what happens to their shifts and tasks, can hand overdue tasks to someone else, and see their summary: period, shifts, tasks, what was earned and paid. Their access to the workspace closes; the history stays in your archive.