---
title: "Communication gaps: unclear duties leading to failures"
source_url: https://legionella.io/articles/communication-gaps-unclear-duties-leading-to-failures/
canonical_url: https://legionella.io/articles/communication-gaps-unclear-duties-leading-to-failures/
pillar: "Common Failures & Enforcement"
summary: "Most Legionella failures trace back to a message that never arrived or a duty no one owned. How to read the gap, close the loop and stop it recurring."
primary_keyword: "Legionella communication"
date_published: 2025-08-29
date_reviewed: 2026-06-26
author: "Legionella.io editorial team (REMOTE TECH LTD)"
reviewed_against: "HSE L8 and HSG274 guidance"
region: "United Kingdom"
license: "(c) REMOTE TECH LTD. Quote freely with attribution and a link to source_url."
---

# Communication gaps: unclear duties leading to failures

A missed flush. A temperature that ran out of range for three months. A failing valve a contractor flagged in March that a guest noticed in July. Pull the thread on most Legionella control failures in UK buildings and you rarely find exotic microbiology. You find a message that never reached the person who could act, or a duty two people each assumed the other held.

That is the honest way to look at communication gaps: not as a vague "people problem", but as a fault you can trace, confirm and design out — the same way you would chase down a cold tank that keeps running warm.

## Read the failure backwards

When something has gone wrong, or nearly did, resist the pull toward the paperwork. Start with the symptom: the missed task, the out-of-range reading, the open action, the complaint. Then walk it backwards through the people who should have known.

Three questions do most of the work. Who was supposed to act on this? Did they actually receive the information, in a form they could use? And was the loop ever closed, or was the item simply "noted"? The gap usually hides at the join between two of those answers — the contractor knew but the responsible person did not, or the responsible person knew but the budget holder never heard.

## Tracing a gap back to its source

The pattern repeats often enough that you can troubleshoot it like any other recurring fault. Match the symptom you can see to the communication cause underneath, confirm it with one quick check, then fix the join rather than the single instance.

| Symptom on site | Likely communication cause | The check that confirms it | The fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly flushing shows gaps in the log | Briefed verbally; no named owner when that person is off | Ask who covers the task during annual leave — if nobody can say, that is the gap | Name the role in the written scheme and add a cover line, not just a person |
| A contractor's fault report has sat open for months | The report landed in an inbox; no one owns "close it out" | Trace one open action from the report to whoever is meant to act | A single remedial-action log: one owner and one date per item |
| An out-of-range reading was recorded but never escalated | The person taking readings doesn't know the limit or who to tell | Ask them what they do when a reading fails | Print the acceptable limit and the escalation route on the recording sheet itself |
| A dead leg appeared after a refurbishment | The project team never told the water safety side | Check whether the last building works show up in the risk assessment review | Add a water safety sign-off to the project change process |
| Two parties each assume the other holds the duty | The duty was never written down at handover | Ask each party to point to the document that names the duty holder | Record the duty holder and responsible person in writing; share it with all parties |

If the same weakness turns up in more than one row — say, no named owner *and* no closed-loop log — stop treating each as a separate slip. That is a system failure, and it needs a management fix, not another reminder email.

## Where the message actually gets lost

A few joins fail far more often than the rest.

Handover is the worst offender. A responsible person leaves, changes team, or goes on long-term leave, and the knowledge goes with them. The folder gets passed on; the context does not. Their replacement inherits a logbook nobody has ever walked them through and a contractor relationship they did not build. L8 expects the duty holder to appoint a competent responsible person and to maintain clear lines of responsibility and communication — and a handover that is just a link to a shared drive does not meet that bar [1].

Split duties are next. In a let or managed building, the landlord, the managing agent and the tenant can each quietly assume one of the others holds the water safety duty. HSE is clear that landlords have duties for the systems they are responsible for, and those duties have to be assigned and understood rather than left ambient [2]. The fix is unglamorous: write down who the duty holder is and who the responsible person is, then make sure every party has actually seen it.

Contractor reporting is the third. A water treatment contractor flags a fault — a tepid outlet, a failed monthly temperature, a TMV due for service — in a report that lands in a shared inbox or a logbook no one opens between visits. The information exists; the action never gets an owner. HSG274 treats record-keeping as part of control, not a filing chore, and a report only counts as a control if someone is required to read it and act [3].

Then there is the change nobody mentioned. A refurbishment caps a wing, a department moves out, a redundant shower stays plumbed in. The project team did its job; it simply never crossed anyone's mind to tell the water safety side. The new dead leg sits there until the next risk assessment review stumbles on it — or until it does not.

## Name the role, then close the loop

Two habits prevent most of this, and neither is expensive. Strong Legionella communication, in practice, comes down to them: named roles, and findings that cannot quietly die in an inbox.

Name roles, not just individuals. The written scheme should say which role flushes the low-use outlets, which role reviews the readings, and who covers each when the named person is away. Roles survive staff turnover; named individuals walk out the door with the knowledge in their head.

Then make every action close. A single remedial-action log — one owner and one date per item, left open until someone signs it off — turns a pile of "noted" findings into managed control. Record the reasoning, not just the task: "this outlet is flushed weekly because use is intermittent; a missed flush escalates to the responsible person; repeated misses trigger a use-pattern review." Anyone picking up the role cold can then see not only what to do, but why, and what a failure should set off.

## What to do this week

Pick one open finding from your most recent contractor report or risk assessment and trace it end to end. Can you name the person who owns it, point to where they were told, and show the date it was closed or the reason it is still open? If any link is missing, you have just found a live communication gap — fix that join first, then check whether the same gap repeats across your other open actions. For the wider pattern this sits inside, [Complacency in Legionella control: a hidden threat](https://legionella.io/articles/complacency-in-legionella-control-a-hidden-threat/) covers how control quietly erodes once nobody is reviewing the evidence.

## A note on limits

This is general guidance on management arrangements, not a template to drop onto your site unread. Who holds the duty, who acts as responsible person, and how findings escalate all depend on your building, your contracts and your risk assessment. Where any of this touches legal responsibility — tenancy terms, managing-agent agreements, employment — confirm it against the actual documents and competent advice rather than assuming the chain works the way the logbook implies [4].

## FAQ

### Who is the "responsible person" if we use a managing agent and a water treatment contractor?
There still has to be a named duty holder, and they appoint a competent responsible person to take day-to-day charge. A managing agent or contractor can hold that role only if it is explicitly assigned in writing and they have accepted it; otherwise the duty stays up the chain. The contractor carries out tasks, but accountability does not transfer just because the work is outsourced [1].

### A contractor flagged a problem months ago and nothing happened. Whose failure is that?
Practically, it is a management failure at the point the report stopped moving. The finding existed; there was simply no owner for closing it. The lesson is not to blame the last person who touched it, but to put every item into a remedial-action log with an owner and a due date so nothing can sit "noted" indefinitely [3].

### How do we stop building works from creating risks nobody knows about?
Build water safety into the change process. Any project that alters, caps or extends pipework should trigger a review against the risk assessment before sign-off, so new dead legs and out-of-use outlets are caught at source rather than discovered at the next annual review [3].

## Related reading
- [Learning from past Legionella outbreaks in the UK](https://legionella.io/articles/learning-from-past-legionella-outbreaks-in-the-uk/)
- [Complacency in Legionella control: a hidden threat](https://legionella.io/articles/complacency-in-legionella-control-a-hidden-threat/)
- [Cooling towers and evaporative condensers: high-risk systems](https://legionella.io/articles/cooling-towers-and-evaporative-condensers-high-risk-systems/)

## Sources
[1] HSE, "Legionnaires' disease. The control of legionella bacteria in water systems - Approved Code of Practice and guidance (L8)". https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/l8.htm
[2] HSE, "Legionella and landlords' responsibilities". https://www.hse.gov.uk/legionnaires/legionella-landlords-responsibilities.htm
[3] HSE, "Legionnaires' disease: Technical guidance (HSG274)". https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/hsg274.htm
[4] HSE, "Legionnaires' disease - what you must do". https://www.hse.gov.uk/legionnaires/what-you-must-do/index.htm