Legal
Receiving a visit with no notice
They arrive in the morning, unannounced, and they choose what to take. The only thing you can prepare is what comes before.
One day they turn up without an appointment and with an order. **There is nothing to prepare that day**: what exists is what exists, and what they take is their decision. Everything that can be done about this situation happens beforehand —months or years— and consists of two very different things that tend to get confused: knowing what you hold, and your people knowing what to do when the buzzer goes.
What is decided at each moment
| When | What can be decided | Who decides it |
|---|---|---|
| Years before | What is kept and where | You |
| Months before | Who knows what to do | You |
| That day | How it is handled | Whoever is on reception |
| **What they take** | **Nothing** | **They do** |
Important
**The most consequential decision in all of this is taken, unknowingly, by whoever opens the door.** That is not a figure of speech: the first half hour sets the tone, determines whether the right people are alerted in time, and decides whether somebody starts doing things on their own initiative with good intentions. Having a simple instruction —who to call, what to do meanwhile, what not to touch— is worth more than any amount of later documentary preparation.
What can actually be ready
- 1
Knowing what information exists and where
Not to hide it: to be able to accompany and know what is taken.
- 2
A written instruction on what to do, and short
Half a page. A long one is neither read nor remembered.
- 3
A record of what they take
What is copied, from where and from what dates. It is needed afterwards.
- 4
And alerting the right people immediately
Your lawyer must be involved in the first hours, not the next day.
Watch out
There is an instinctive reaction to plan for precisely because it is instinctive: **starting to tidy, delete or move things on hearing the news**. It comes from an employee's good intention to help, not from a management decision, and it turns a manageable situation into a completely different and far worse one. The written instruction exists above all to prevent that, which is why it must be written beforehand and known by more people than the board.
Worth knowing
What powers each kind of inspection has, what rights and duties you have during the visit, what may be withheld and how the proceedings are documented **is determined by the applicable rules and settled by your lawyer**, and there are important differences between subject matters. Here we cover the organisational part: knowing what information exists and having in writing what your people do.
›Can I prepare anything on the day?
Practically nothing. Everything useful is done beforehand.
›Who should handle it?
Whoever is designated, and everyone should know who to alert.
›Should what they take be recorded?
Yes, in detail. It is the basis for everything that follows.
A real case
The situation
They arrive unannounced and nobody knows who to call.
What you do
- Keeps the procedure written down and accessible
What you get
The first half hour is handled properly.
The situation
Nobody knows for certain what information exists or where.
What you do
- Keeps the archive organised and locatable
What you get
You can accompany them knowing what is being discussed.
The situation
No record remains of what was taken.
What you do
- Allows recording what was handed over, dated and in detail
What you get
The proceedings are documented from day one.
The situation
An employee starts moving things on their own initiative.
What you do
- Has the instruction clear and known beforehand
What you get
The instinctive reaction is replaced by a procedure.
The situation
Information is scattered across personal machines.
What you do
- Centralises documentation off individual machines
What you get
What exists is known without opening each computer.
The situation
What happened that day has to be reconstructed afterwards.
What you do
- Keeps the record of the visit and what was provided
What you get
A file of what occurred exists.
This article answers
- what to do if inspectors arrive unannounced
- they take copies of emails and documents
- what can be prepared before an inspection
- who handles an inspection visit