TrustMark lodgement is the final act of a PAS2035 retrofit project — the submission that creates the formal compliance record, unlocks funding payments and confirms that the project was delivered to the required standard. For many retrofit coordinators, it is also the most stressful part of the process. Lodgements fail for reasons that were entirely avoidable, late in a project when pressure to complete is highest.
Key fact: Without a successful TrustMark lodge, the project has no verified compliance record and funding cannot be released. The lodge is not optional — it is the formal close-out of the PAS2035 process.
What Lodgement Records
The TrustMark data warehouse receives a record of the completed project that includes the property details, the measures installed, the parties involved — RC, assessor, designer, installers — and the key compliance documents produced at each stage. All lodgements are subject to audit, so the underlying documentation must be complete, consistent and retained by the RC.
The Complete Document Set
A PAS2035-compliant lodgement requires documentation across all four stages:
- Stage 1: RdSAP assessment report, condition survey, Stage 1 advice letter issued and signed by resident
- Stage 2: Improvement Option Evaluation, Medium Term Plan, client agreement to the selected option, Stage 2 advice letter
- Stage 3: Retrofit design, ventilation assessment, overheating assessment where required, RC design sign-off, Stage 3 advice letter
- Stage 4: PAS2030 installation certificates for every measure from every installer, MCS certificates where applicable, non-conformity log with all items closed, Stage 4 advice letter, handover pack, claim of compliance signed by the RC
The Most Common Causes of Failure
- Missing or incomplete ventilation assessment — the single most common reason lodgements fail; must reflect what was actually installed, not just what was originally designed
- Design documents not updated — measures changed during installation but the design was never revised to match
- Unclosed non-conformities — items recorded on the NCL but no evidence of resolution; every NCL item must be formally closed before lodgement
- Installer certification gaps — PAS2030 certificate not verified before works, or certificate does not cover the specific measure type installed
- Advice letters missing or unsigned — particularly Stage 3 and Stage 4, which are most commonly omitted
- IOE/MTP inconsistency with as-installed — what was agreed and what was installed do not match, with no documented explanation
Build Lodgement Into the Project Plan
The most effective approach to lodgement is to treat it as a continuous process rather than an end-of-project task. By the time Stage 4 installation is complete, all Stage 1–3 documentation should already be finalised and checked. The RC should maintain a checklist tracking the status of every required document at every stage throughout the project.
Projects that run into lodgement problems almost always share the same root cause: documentation was left to accumulate rather than managed in real time, and gaps that could have been corrected at Stage 2 or 3 are only discovered when pressure to submit is highest.
How PASDOC Eliminates Lodgement Failures
PASDOC runs automated compliance checks at every stage of the PAS2035 process — flagging missing documents, inconsistencies and unresolved non-conformities in real time throughout the project, not just at lodgement. By the time a project reaches Stage 4, the compliance picture is already clean. The lodgement becomes a final confirmation rather than a recovery exercise.