---
id: KB-CL-018
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/collaboration/when-your-supplier-subcontracts-someone-else
idioma: en
categoria: colaboracion
subcategoria: externos
audiencia: usuario
nivel: intermedio
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-CL-011, KB-CL-008, KB-CL-017]
citadoPor: [KB-CL-016]
---

# When your supplier subcontracts someone else

_Documents start arriving in the name of a company that is not in your contract. What to do with them._

**Responde a:** my supplier has subcontracted another company · a certificate arrives from a company I do not know · who answers if the subcontractor fails · supply chain documentation

You hired one company and suddenly the delivery note comes from another, the technician who turns up wears a different logo, or the certificate arrives in a third party's name. It is neither rare nor necessarily a problem — it becomes one when it happens with nobody saying so and the documents come in anyway.

## What changes and what does not

| Aspect | What happens when there is a subcontractor |
| --- | --- |
| Who answers to you | The company you hired, unless you agreed otherwise |
| Who produces the documents | It may be the other one, and usually is |
| Who you claim against | Your supplier, not whoever carried out the work |
| What you must be able to show | That you knew who was working and with what documentation |

> [!IMPORTANT]
> The fourth row is the neglected one and the one anyone reviewing asks about: **a document in the name of a company that does not appear in your contract says nothing on its own**. With no record that this third party was authorised by your supplier to do that work, you hold a certificate that cannot be tied to anything. And it cannot be fixed later, because what is missing is the link between the two, not the paper.

## How to tie it down without slowing the work

1. **Ask them to notify the subcontracting** — An email from the supplier saying who they delegate to and for what is enough.
2. **Keep that email in the same file** — It is the piece that links the document to your contract.
3. **Ask the subcontractor for what you ask the supplier** — Through the same process: no need to invent a new one.
4. **And note the date from which they are involved** — If something happened before or after, that date settles it by itself.

> [!WARNING]
> The most surprising part of this situation: **whoever has to ask the subcontractor for documents is usually your supplier, not you** — it is their relationship, not yours. Yet whoever answers for not having them, when someone reviews, is still you. That asymmetry is uncomfortable and it is real, and it is handled by asking your supplier: let them hand the documents over, even if someone else produced them.

## When it is worth stopping

**En corto**

- When there are more links than you were told and nobody knows how many.
- When the subcontractor changes weekly and no documentation arrives for any of them.
- And when the work needs a specific authorisation: there, nobody is accepted unchecked.

> [!NOTE]
> How far you are required to control the chain depends on the sector and the type of work, and some have specific subcontracting rules. **Your adviser settles that**; what matters here is that traceability of who did what is lost at the first link nobody wrote down.

**Can I forbid subcontracting?**

That is a contract clause, and your adviser will tell you how to word it.

**What if I find out by chance?**

That is the signal to ask for it in writing, not that there is bad intent.

**Do I give the subcontractor access?**

Better that they contribute the same way any third party does, with their own trace.

## Ejemplos

**A company receives certificates in the name of a firm that is not in its contract.**

- Asks its supplier for the email authorising the subcontractor and files it alongside

→ The certificate is linked to the contract, and the review no longer has a loose end.

**Your maintenance supplier sends a different company and nobody knew until the van arrived.**

- Agrees contractually whether they may subcontract and on what terms
- Records which firms are authorised for each supplier
- Requires of the subcontractor what is required of the supplier

→ The chain is known before the job and the documentary gap does not sit on your balance sheet.

**The client asks about the subcontractor and nobody knows who they are.**

- Asks the supplier to declare their chain

→ The answer exists before the question.

**The subcontractor does not meet what the supplier signed.**

- Passes the same list down the chain

→ The commitment reaches whoever executes.

**Subcontracting is authorised verbally.**

- Records it with its scope and date

→ What was authorised is demonstrable.

**The subcontractor changes and nobody communicates it.**

- Asks to be informed of any change

→ The change arrives before the job.

**A review asks who was on the premises on a specific day.**

- Checks the record of authorised access

→ You answer using that day's date.

**The subcontracting is discovered during an audit.**

- Reviews the declared chain periodically

→ The finding is made before the auditor makes it.