Handover checklist: what to check before you sign

At handover, check the documents first, then the services, then the finish, then the property against the contract drawings. Record everything with dated photographs and get your objections onto the document you sign. What you fail to record at handover is what becomes an argument later.

Before the day

1. Get the contract specification and the drawings for your unit, not the marketing brochure.
2. Establish what the document you will be asked to sign actually is, and what signing it means.
3. Confirm the occupancy or completion certificate exists and covers your unit.
4. Arrange for somebody competent to attend with you, or in your place.

Services, which are the expensive ones

• Every socket and switch, individually, with a tester rather than by eye.
• Hot water at every outlet, and how long it takes to arrive.
• Water pressure at the highest and furthest outlet, not just the nearest.
• Every drain: sinks, showers, bath, terrace outlets, running for long enough to see standing water.
• Air conditioning in each room, heating and cooling, including the condensate drain.
• Ventilation in the bathrooms and kitchen, tested with something visible rather than by listening.

The building fabric

• Falls on every wet-area floor. Water should leave, and the direction should be obvious.
• Windows and doors: every one opens, closes, locks, and seals when shut.
• Signs of damp at floor and ceiling junctions, in cupboards and behind doors.
• Cracking, and whether it follows a line that suggests movement rather than shrinkage.
• External waterproofing where a terrace, balcony or roof meets the building.

Against the contract, not against taste

The strongest items on a defect list are the ones that cite a document. A finish you dislike is a preference; a finish that differs from the annexed specification is a breach, and the two are treated very differently by the person receiving your list.

Check the areas, the layout against the drawings, the specified brands and grades of everything that has a brand, and the inventory of what should be present at all: appliances, fittings, keys, remotes, and the manuals and warranties for each.

The signature

This is where handovers are won and lost. If you are asked to sign that you accept the property, and there are outstanding items, the objections belong on that document or on an annex referenced by it, signed by both sides on the day.

An agreement to raise the items afterwards is worth much less, and in some jurisdictions an unqualified acceptance closes the argument entirely.

The order that protects you at handover is documents, then services, then fabric, then finish against the contract, with every finding dated and photographed and every objection recorded on the document you actually sign.